More and more neo-banks such as Revolut are claiming their place in the financial services industry. People are getting comfortable with the digital-only strategy behind big startups. And traditional banks are following the trend. Just recently, Business Insider reported that HSBC and RBS are rolling out new digital banking platforms. Consequently, the demand for regulatory technology is rising. In fact, young and innovative RegTech companies, that work on solutions which radically change the way regulatory challenges are met, are more sought-after than ever before.
One of the most flourishing RegTech markets is situated in Singapore. «The Global RegTech Industry Benchmark Report», conducted by the University of Cambridge in 2019, concluded that Singapore is one of the Top 10 RegTech markets. Thinking about it, it makes sense. As an international financial centre with a presence of over 200 banks and over 600 FinTech firms, Singapore is of great importance.
Here are our Top 5 RegTech companies in Singapore to watch in 2020:
Dathena enables end-to-end data protection thanks to artificial intelligence technology. Dathena strives to eliminate data breaches. Their solutions include data privacy compliance, data loss prevention and cloud access security. Dathena does not only provide the financial services industry with their products but several others such as the healthcare and the defence and security industry. In 2018 they were selected as a Cool Vendor for artificial intelligence in Asia by Gartner.
Cynopsis is an award-winning RegTech company founded and based in Singapore. Cynopsis helps its customers better comply with increasing regulatory requirements, specialising in AML, CTF and KYC. Currently, Cynopsis has offices in Singapore, the UK, in Taiwan and Vietnam.
Apiax makes it radically simple for companies to comply with regulations. The Swiss RegTech startup builds a powerful toolset that allows companies to provide business roles with easy access to compliance knowledge and empowers developers to create software that is compliant by design. Apiax’ solution is different because it follows a horizontal approach, making it relevant across different regulatory use cases and even industries.
Clausematch offers compliance collaboration software, providing a policy management platform, an AI content mapping platform and a policy portal. Their solution is intended for policy owners, compliance officers, risk officers and digital transformation officers. Clausematch announced their new office in Singapore shortly after making a deal with the digital bank Revolut.
Netguardians is an award-winning Swiss FinTech / RegTech company that helps financial institutions to fight financial crime. The startup developed the first augmented intelligence solution made for banks to proactively prevent fraud. They empower their clients by providing machine learning technology together with contextual information and strive for a great user experience. That certainly does the trick! At least it got them recognized as Gartner Cool Vendor in 2015 and Chartis RiskTech 100 Vendor in 2018.
These are, in our view, the 5 most notable RegTech startups to watch in Singapore in the coming year. Given the recent momentum in both RegTech and Singapore in general, we are confident that new and exciting companies will come onto the market during the year!
