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RegTech successfully turned around

Cinnober acquired Ancoa Software from administrators after Ancoa’s venture backers failed to follow on. TATech partners were engaged to step in and turn around the fortunes of this failing and dysfunctional firm.

Further information

Cinnober acquired Ancoa Software from administrators after Ancoa’s venture backers failed to follow on. TACTech partners were engaged to step in and turn around the fortunes of this failing and dysfunctional firm.

 

The Client

Cinnober is a leading provider of trading and clearing technology, serving exchanges and clearinghouses globally. Cinnober is now part of Nasdaq group after being acquired in Q1, 2019. Ancoa provides market surveillance, trading and operational analytics to banks, brokers, exchanges and regulators.

 

Challenges

Ancoa Software Ltd had gone into administration following the decision by their venture capital backers to withdraw further investment. Ancoa had existing and a pipeline of clients but was failing to scale their technology quickly. Overpromising and under-delivering had generated significant disquiet within Ancoa’s client base and the public persona of Ancoa was one of staff attrition and disharmony.

 

How TACTech Partners Helped

Initial focus was on reducing the burn rate and undertaking a strategic review. TACTech provided an interim CEO to undertake the review, implement cost control and present a number of strategic options to the new owners. This review resulted in a clear understanding of the constraints to scale and generated a number of avenues to recover the business and create value through sweating the asset or to buy and build from it. 

With a new strategy agreed TACTech deployed an interim CTO to stabilise the current service and build a technology organisation capable of delivering a new and scalable platform and with access to our IT Project Managers and senior technicians, in a mixture of interim and long term roles, quickly accelerated the profitable trajectory of the firm. 

 

Results, Return on Investment and Future Plans

Despite a high burn rate, inherited sub-standard technology and a disaffected client base, TACTech successfully turned around Ancoa in a short space of time. Renamed Irisium. The firm’s value significantly increased and as part of a wider restructuring, Cinnober sold a significant stake to newly listed KRM22. 

 

About TACTech Turnaround Services.

TACTech’s broad and deep bench of Executives in residence and practitioners in operations, technology, finance, regulations and marketing allows a unique value proposition to quickly understand the core issues in an organisation and transform a failing firm into a profitable venture.