Nasdaq Ventures purchases stake in Newcastle regtech firm

Nasdaq Ventures, the investment arm of electronic exchange Nasdaq, has purchased a minority stake in Caspian, a Newcastle-based anti-money laundering firm.

Caspian’s automated investigation technology uses machine learning alongside human expertise to help global banks fight money laundering and financial crime.

The two companies will also look for opportunities to combine their research and development to further combat financial crime in the global financial services industry.

With this additional funding Caspian will accelerate its product expansion and scale of its platform, AML Investigator. The terms of the investment were not disclosed.

“Investing in technology disruptors like Caspian that align with our business interests in improving the transparency of markets everywhere is one of the core objectives for our venture efforts,” said Gary Offner, Head of Nasdaq Ventures.

“One feature that is critical to the health and integrity of the financial industry is detecting, mitigating and managing fraudulent and criminal behavior. Caspian has been at the forefront of this process through its forward-thinking technology leadership and we believe their offering greatly improves the regtech ecosystem for banks and regulators, and ultimately the consumer. We are excited to align our investment interests with our business mission to jointly strengthen the fight against financial crime through our collaboration with Caspian.”

Chris Brannigan, CEO of Caspian added: “Caspian’s proven solution solves a huge pain point in the industry, dramatically increasing analyst productivity and resulting in meaningful cost-savings for bank compliance teams.

“Our machine learning technology is validated through production use at global financial institutions, making risk decisions that are fully explainable and regulator friendly. Through the investment and partnership with Nasdaq we are excited to expand our offering at a global scale.”