AQMetrics looks to double headcount and raise funds as it expands

Irish regulatory technology (regtech) firm AQMetrics, which was last year ranked as one of the top 50 European businesses transforming financial services, is looking to double headcount and open an office in mainland Europe on the back of a number of recent big contract wins.

The company, which provide risk and regulatory reporting services across different regulatory regimes, is also exploring raising further funds later this year after securing €1 million of additional funding from existing investors last month.

Established by Geraldine Gibson in Maynooth, Co Kildare, in 2012, AQMetrics raised $3.25 million (€2.64 million) from investors including Frontline Ventures, Bluff Point Associates and Enterprise Ireland in early 2016 to help it expand in the United States. The company recently tapped a number of existing investors to raise further capital as it looks to scale following the signing of a number of big contracts recently.

Multi-year contract

These deals include a multi-year contract with US Bancorp, which is ranked among the top 10 largest banks in the US, to act as its regulatory risk and reporting hub across its global funds services business lines. In addition, AQMetrics has signed Mercer, Investec and a large Canadian Bank for the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), which came into force at the start of 2018.

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Ms Gibson, the company's chief executive, said it was dealing with a flood of enquiries from institutions after receiving Central Bank authorisation to operate a MiFID II approved reporting mechanism earlier this month.

"We have been signing deals from San Francisco to Singapore and these include a number of large tier-one banks," she said.

“We’re scaling headcount in Maynooth, which is where our development arm, customer success unit and headquarters all are. We’re also looking to hire for London and New York to scale our presence there and in Central Europe with plans to base ourselves in either Paris or Luxembourg,” Ms Gibson added.

She said the company was also looking to open an office in Asia, although this will most likely happen next year.

The company does not disclose revenues but recently lodged accounts show accumulated losses rose to €1.6 million in 2016. A note attached with the financial statements said the company had moved “from the start-up phase of development into commercialisation”.

“While revenue is expected to increase rapidly, particularly following some recent contract wins, it will take time for revenues to be sufficient to cover their costs,” directors of the company said.