Surveillance technology supplier VoxSmart has raised $12 million in a funding round that includes ToscaFund and other existing investors. The latest raise is aimed at helping VoxSmart leverage the opportunity presented by the greater regulatory scrutiny of WhatsApp and other communications channels used by financial professionals.
VoxSmart CEO Oliver Blower says the company has witnessed growing demand among small and medium-sized financial institutions for an effective out-of-box surveillance solution. The latest funding round will be used to further develop VoxSmart’s technology underpinning its range of solutions for a wider breadth of clients, including mobile text and voice capture, trade reconstruction, and natural language processing (NLP).
The new funding follows Toscafund’s investment of $25 million in March 2021, as well as VoxSmart’s acquisition of US based AI and NLP technology provider GreenKey Technologies in November 2021. It also comes on the heels of an uptick in regulatory oversight and fines levied in 2022, in particular for communications violations involving WhatsApp. Last September, the US FCC and CFTC issued over $2 billion in fines to 11 of the largest market participants, according to VoxSmart, with the UK’s FCA launching a follow up probe to gauge the level of WhatsApp use amongst major institutions.
VoxSmart believes an increased focus from regulators on the multiple communications tools and channels used by financial institutions, combined with an increase in employee and customer usage of more diverse means of communication, is creating challenges for financial firms. With regulators taking a more stringent stance on communications, firms are facing a lack of tools suited for the industry, VoxSmart says, with the situation exacerbated by the launch of ChatGPT AND ChatGPT4.
The company and its backers reckon the technology it offers for addressing regulatory requirements relating to multiple communications channels, as well as its innovation in NLP, AI and machine learning (ML), can help. According to George Koulouris, partner at Tosca Fund, “VoxSmart has significant experience in assisting global market participants with these incredibly complex matters.”
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