News 2016

Keronite joins Growth Builder programme

Surface technology company Keronite has been named as one of the first companies to join the Growth Builder programme, designed to help ambitious, high-growth businesses rapidly and sustainably scale up.

The Cambridgeshire based business is home to a patented plasma electrolytic oxidation technology that improves the performance characteristics of light alloys, such as aluminium, magnesium and titanium. The treatment enables the use of lightweight metal alloys in high-performance environments, such as aerospace, automotive and energy, offering performance and environmental improvements.

Matt Hamblin, CEO of Keronite, said: “We’re excited to be accepted as one of the first cohort of businesses on the scheme. Our world-leading surface technology is already proving popular with customers across a wide range of high performance industries but we know its potential is greater still. “We’ve made great strides in the business over the last few years but we’re committed to identifying further growth opportunities and I’m looking forward to working with the Growth Builder team to expand our networks and develop future commercial opportunities for our ground-breaking technology.

The Growth Builder programme has been designed by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, bringing together Government, universities, entrepreneurs and leading UK companies to network and share expertise to drive growth and job creation. It is organised by University College London, Natwest, UKTI, BT, PIE Mapping, the Fast Growth Forum, UK Business Angels Association and Loughborough University.”

www.keronite.com

ClusterSeven Investment

New CEO and funding accelerates ClusterSeven

Azini today announced that following the recent appointment of new CEO, Chris Gomersall, it is now providing further funding to accelerate the growth of ClusterSeven.  Headquartered in London and with offices in New York & Boston, ClusterSeven is the leading provider of strategic software for the management of user-built applications, reducing operational risk and costs whilst helping companies to meet their governance, risk and regulatory compliance (GRC) obligations.

Chris joins ClusterSeven with more than 30 years of industry experience and has held a number of senior management positions across various sectors during his career.  Immediately prior to joining ClusterSeven he was CEO at Acunu, a UK-based pioneer of Big Data analytics solutions.  In just 18 months he led the company from a pre-revenue position to a successful acquisition by a leading Silicon Valley technology firm.

Nick Habgood, Managing Partner at Azini Capital Partners explained; “After acquiring ClusterSeven in June 2015 we are very ambitious for the business and keen to see it realise its full potential. Key to our plans is to ensure that the business has the right leadership and we are delighted that Chris is now part of our team. We also recognised when acquiring ClusterSeven that the business would need funding to further its market penetration and continue to evolve its best in class range of products. Our decision to provide this substantial amount of new funding underlines our confidence in the future of ClusterSeven.”

“The market for Enterprise Spreadsheet Management systems has been slow to build over the last 10 years, but with an increasingly demanding regulatory landscape, large businesses now see this as an imperative,” added Gomersall. “I now feel that we are on the edge of a huge expansion in this market, and with 10 years of product maturity and customer experience, I am very confident that ClusterSeven will continue to dominate this sector and be the supplier of choice to the most demanding enterprises. “

About ClusterSeven

London-based ClusterSeven has developed a range of market-leading software products that provide oversight and transparency of a firm’s spreadsheets, user-built databases and modelling tools. ClusterSeven’s solutions give functions such as finance, risk and internal audit full confidence in the integrity of their firm’s spreadsheet data, while also offering substantial savings on the time and resources used to check data processes and accuracy.

ClusterSeven was founded in 2003 and established a New York office in 2006. The firm now has a third of the world’s top 30 banks as clients as well as multiple leading insurers, investment managers and energy firms. In June 2015 private equity firm Azini Capital Partners LLP acquired 100% of ClusterSeven and will be providing additional investment to promote high quality product development and wider customer engagement.

For more information about ClusterSeven, visit www.clusterseven.com.

Bolero appoints Daniel Cotti as new chairman

Trade finance specialist Bolero International has appointed former J.P. Morgan executive Daniel Cotti as its new chairman, with effect from 1st February.

Cotti will replace Nicholas Barber CBE, who joined the company in 1999 and will move from his current role to become Deputy Chairman.

Cotti first joined the board of Bolero International as a non-executive director in September last year, following a distinguished 30-year banking career with JPMorgan, Citibank, ABN AMRO Bank and RBS.

He has been actively involved with major industry associations including the ICC Banking Commission, SWIFT and The Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT) and now runs his own boutique consulting company CTT - Cotti Trade & Treasury.

Barber joined Bolero International in 1999 and, as the company’s first independent Chairman, has guided the business through a series of critical events in its history which included securing significant investment from Apax and Barings; Bolero’s spin-out from SWIFT; delivering significant growth; opening offices in Hong Kong and Singapore; achieving cashflow breakeven and profitability and appointing Ian Kerr as CEO in 2014.

Cotti’s deep domain expertise and relationships across the trade finance industry have already proven to be invaluable in helping Bolero to define a number of new product offerings which it is planning to bring to the market in 2016. In his new role as Chairman Cotti will continue to work closely with Kerr and the Bolero team to deliver the company’s ambitious growth plans.

Nick Habgood of Azini Capital said: “We are delighted that Daniel (Cotti) has agreed to become Bolero’s new Chairman. Since joining the board in September (2015) Dani’s insight and input have been extremely useful and, with a number of new products due to come to market in 2016, he is exactly the right person to support Ian (Kerr) and the Bolero team in the coming, exciting and ambitious phase of growth.

“The shareholders are also enormously grateful to Nicholas (Barber) for his long term leadership and guidance of the business – taking Bolero from start-up to what is today a highly successful and profitable international SaaS solutions business. We are delighted that he has agreed to continue supporting the company’s development and growth in the capacity of Deputy Chairman”.

He added: “Bolero’s ambition is to enable the seamless settlement of international commercial transactions, providing a single point of access for the multiple participants in trade including the sellers and buyers, the financial community, the shipping agents, the carriers and the various authorities. Bolero aims to deliver value for all of the parties in the supply chain - reducing time and errors, by improving cash flow and working capital while ensuring efficiency, quality and security.”

About Bolero

Bolero is a global leader in the handling of electronic trade finance documentation and automatic settlement. As pioneers of structured documents for corporate trade, today our solutions power more than six million trade documents and $80bn worth of trade transactions per annum.

Bolero has led the world in electronic document presentation for 12 years, bringing the industry's first electronic Bill of Lading solution to market. We provide a range of solutions designed specifically for the fully electronic management and communication of trade finance documents and related messages, including open account, letters of credit, guarantees, standbys and collections between a corporate’s trade finance function and its panel banks.

www.bolero.net