Moody’s Corporation has acquired PassFort and plans to acquire kompany to boost its know your customer (KYC) technology solutions.
The firm is probably in a good mood and says the acquisitions complement its technology, data and analytical capabilities, and enhance customer solutions for KYC, anti-money laundering, compliance and counterparty risk. Financial details were not disclosed.
PassFort is headquartered in London and was founded in 2015. Its SaaS-based workflow platform is used for identity verification, customer onboarding and risk analysis. Its software delivers data from over 25 third-party providers and automates the collection, verification and storage of customer and supplier due diligence documentation.
The integration of PassFort’s platform into Moody’s suite of KYC and compliance offerings will allow customers to incorporate Moody’s data, including credit, cyber, ESG, and climate analytics, directly into their proprietary processes.
kompany (aka 360kompany) is a Vienna-based platform for business verification and KYC, operating a network of primary source information on more than 115 million companies across 200 jurisdictions.
kompany’s API will enable Moody’s customers to complete shareholder analysis and entity verification in real time, as well as retrieve original company filings and documents.
Moody’s will integrate both companies into its KYC business within Moody’s Analytics, where they will “augment” the Orbis company database and the GRID database of risk profiles, adverse news, politically exposed persons and sanctions.
There are no details about any job changes or cuts as part of these acquisitions. PassFort has 70 employees listed on LinkedIn, while kompany has 125 staff.
Customers on PassFort’s site include Tide, Wirex, Currencycloud and BitPay. kompany’s clients include Raiffeisen Bank, Solarisbank, RiskScreen and Erste Bank.
The acquisition of kompany is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. It will be funded with a combination of cash and shares of Moody’s common stock. The acquisition of PassFort was funded with cash. Neither is expected to have a material impact on Moody’s 2021 financial results.
Moody’s is a massive beast. The risk assessment firm has over 13,000 employees in more than 40 countries.
