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Saphyre
If there was ever going to be a movie made about one of the fintechs we ’ ve highlighted in this feature – it would be Saphyre . Run by Roche twins Gabino and Stephen , the startup enabling market participants to assess risk faster and speed the onboarding process by eliminating inefficiencies in the booking , confirmation , and settlement process , has resonated with asset managers , brokers , custodians and administrators alike . The start-up claims it allows firms not only to assess risk faster and clearly , but also speed up their onboarding processes and eliminate 70- 75 % of redundant or inefficient post-trade activities . Saphyre digitises all pre-trade data and documents , eliminating redundant manual processes and allowing for secure , expedited access to data throughout the trade lifecycle . The brothers launched the start-up out of New Jersey with a compelling solution , AI technology and an infectious energy that has won over some of the largest institutions in the custody world and beyond . JP Morgan adopted technology from Saphyre to digitise and automate the onboarding process for its securities services business in 2020 , while piloting the solution with BlackRock , where it was able to digitise the custody account opening workflow – a function that has previously been very paperbased and manually driven . Since then , Saphyre has completed its Series A funding and has been adopted by Societe Generale , Standard
ELEVATOR PITCH
Saphyre ’ s globally patented , interoperable AI technology digitises , structures , and maintains memory of shared data and documents ( as well as permissioned counterparties ) in pretrade . This standardised ‘ Golden Source ’ of data then automates and expedites downstream trade lifecycle processes .
Chartered and Citi . BNP Paribas joined JP Morgan in the funding , while other partnerships have come through BNY Mellon , Symphony and – most recently – a buy-side deal with Legal & General Investment Management ( LGIM ). The latter is utilising Saphyre ’ s AI platform for the onboarding and maintenance of its funds . The platform is capable of tracking compliance-related activities , such as NAV terminations , contained within the respective ISDA and GMRA agreements , automating client checks for trading as a byproduct of legal agreement setups and amendments . As a result , the platform reduces risk and inefficiencies by removing manual tasks for both buy- and sell-sides . Some years ago , Global Custodian was treated to a demo and an in-depth behind the scenes look at what Saphyre were trying to achieve and our takeaway was that the Roche brothers were onto something special . It seems the securities services industry and their clients shared the same view .
Notable partners and collaborators : Citi , Standard Chartered , Societe Generale , BNP Paribas , JP Morgan , BNY Mellon
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