Opus Global, a provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) based compliance solutions has acquired Alacra, a provider of Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and reference data services for regulatory compliance that was set up by co-founders Steve Goldstein and Michael Angle in 1996. Terms of the transaction, which closed today, were not disclosed.
The acquisition is in line with Opus Global’s mission to build the world’s leading SaaS platform for compliance through direct investments and targeted acquisitions. It follows the company’s first acquisition in July 2014 of Hiperos, a New Jersey based company founded in 2007 to provide SaaS platforms for third-party management, and will allow Alacra’s 170-plus external providers to integrate compliance data into the Hiperos Third Party Network. Opus Global was formed in September 2013 by Chicago based private equity firm GTCR and Doug Bergeron, former CEO of VeriFone and CEO of Opus Global.
Bergeron will take the role of executive chairman of Alacra, with Goldstein remaining as CEO and Angle as president and chief operating officer. Alacra has about 200 customers in the financial sector, few of which overlap Opus Global’s customer base. It also has 30 to 40 customers that are not customers of Opus Global and Opus Global has a similar number of customers that don’t do business with Alacra, leaving plenty of cross-selling opportunities. Opus Global intends to keep the Alacra company brand in the short term and the product brand, along with the Hiperos product brand, in the long term.
Alacra’s management team and towards 70 employees will join Opus Global, while its offices in New York and London will add to Opus Global offices in Palo Alto, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Branchburg, New Jersey.
Commenting on the acquisition, Bergeron says: “We have been looking for a business in the financial compliance space for about two years and held our first conversation with Alacra in March. The main industry we work in is financial services, where banks find it difficult to onboard new customers and maintain their data. In a sector with a heavy regulatory burden, we are trying to make things easier. The fundamentals are to solve difficult compliance problems using sophisticated processes and data aggregation.
“Alacra is a superb addition to Opus Global. Its AML and KYC strengths complement our existing anti-bribery and anti-corruption capabilities. Financial institutions need high quality client data delivered rapidly and processed accurately. Alacra does that better than anyone.”
From Alacra’s perspective, Goldstein says: “This is a great day for Alacra. We look forward to being an integral part of Opus Global’s strategy to build a world leading compliance platform. Customers will be the big winners, with faster, easier access to world class compliance data, and more ways to use it quickly and effectively in their compliance programmes. Our decision to join Opus Global provides the platform and resources to accelerate growth by further penetrating existing markets, exploring new geographies and markets, and innovating new products and services.”
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