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Fintech platform Identitii has laid the groundwork for a breakout year in 2020
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Special Report: With a new CEO and a fresh capital raise, the business is focused on leveraging some key market opportunities in the year ahead.
For ASX-listed fintech Identitii (ASX:ID8), the strength of its network across leading multinational banking clients was one of the company’s early competitive advantages.
In turn, the business established partnerships with names such as HSBC, to build out product development for its Overlay+ platform. It has since gone on to expand that customer relationship as well as announce engagements with the likes of Standard Chartered Bank.
And amid the market volatility caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has made some key strategic moves to start the year, including the recruitment of new CEO John Rayment.
Rayment joins the business following a 9-year career at multinational payments company Travelex, where he rose to become the London-based global head of its business-to-business (B2B) enterprise division.
Speaking with Stockhead, Rayment said that after running a division serving more than 2,000 clients across 77 countries, he got the itch for a new challenge; how to apply his knowledge and networks to assist fintech startups as they scale up to their next phase of growth.
Perfect match
Not long after, he was introduced via a mutual friend to Identitii co-founder Nick Armstrong. Along with a promising business plan, the pair realised that the company was also ideally suited to Rayment’s skillset.
“I know a number of people in senior banking jobs around the world. And when I described the details of Identitii’s business to them, the response from my network was overwhelming. They said that if Identitii can execute on its strategy, then it’s an extraordinary opportunity,” Rayment said.
Having joined the business in January, Rayment said his immediate focus was on establishing a clear set of growth benchmarks for 2020 and beyond, as Identitii scaled its business model towards increasing and repeatable customer wins.
“The key focus now is how to take our core products, where we’ve already established traction with key clients, and build out our customer base,” Rayment said.
“We already have a well-developed sales pipeline of interested parties for a number of our services, so I want to apply a laser focus on doing a small number of things and doing them really well.”
Rayment said his global network had already provided some competitive advantages for the business.
“It’s helped to crystallise our thinking around strategy. Because I’ve been able to approach my network with a suite of opportunities we have and get high level market feedback on which products these companies are likely to buy.”
Problem solvers will be in demand
“We’re applying more of a lean startup approach, where you take a view of the market and the problems they want solved, as opposed to building a product and hoping we can sell it.”
To help fund the execution of that strategy, ID8 last week closed a $1.9m funding round via a rights issue to eligible shareholders.
Along with the funds raised, the company said it had also received “significant interest in strategic investment from several global financial institutions and technology companies”.
The additional capital will be deployed towards helping the company close a number of late stage deals and progressing strategic investment conversations that are underway.
While the pace of market activity slows dramatically amid the ongoing health crisis, Rayment is confident that Identitii is well-placed to benefit amid the uncertainty.
“If you look across the spectrum, from governments and regulators to banks and consumers, the demand for more information around transactions isn’t going to go away,” he said.
“In terms of our long term opportunity, financial institutions will likely be looking to identify quicker and more nimble ways to solve problems such as how to meet reporting and regulatory obligations, that haven’t gone away.”
“Solving technology challenges in a faster, smarter and more cost-effective way than completely overhauling existing technology systems is the key value proposition on which Identitii was built,” Rayment said. “Which puts us in a unique position to help financial institutions as we emerge from this crisis.”
“If we stay disciplined and focused on executing our strategy, we will be perfectly placed to help financial services companies rebuild.”
