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Image credit: Summa Equity

Stockholm-based Summa Equity, a firm that invests in companies solving global challenges, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired a majority stake in Belgium-based fintech company, Intix.

Summa Equity’s Fund III has made its first investment with this acquisition. Fund III came three years after Fund II, and five years after Fund I. The company launched its first fund in 2017, raising €470M, and second in 2019, raising €680M. Summa Equity has also raised €540M in co-investments.

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“Trailing and tracing transaction data”

Founded in 2011 by Marc Braet and Wouter Santvliet, Intix is a fintech company that provides a transaction and compliance insight platform for the financial sector.

The company’s technology products provide financial institutions with the capability to view all their transaction data in a unified visual graphical user interface (GUI) as well as in machine-readable application programming interfaces (APIs).

Intix claims that its technology can be integrated easily into a bank’s existing infrastructure, avoiding data duplication and costly hardware investments. It also saves time by providing insight and action needed to track transactions while identifying irregularities and issuing real-time alerts.

Some of its clients include Tier 1 banks such as KBC, Nordea, Société Générale, and Standard Bank of South Africa.

Aim of this acquisition

Summa Equity’s acquisition allows Intix to accelerate its growth and innovation while keeping the founders on board to leverage their experience to capitalise on new business opportunities that solve global challenges. Intix says it will contribute to a safer, transparent, and more inclusive financial system, helping reduce illicit financial flows, corruption and financial inequities.

According to a statement, this acquisition builds on Summa Equity’s track record of incorporating the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework in shaping the investment and value creation strategy to drive long-run value.

The SDGs are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”. The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the UN General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030.

Intix directly addresses SDG #16.4 to prevent illicit financial flows and #SDG 16.5 to help reduce corruption. Preventing illicit financial flows is becoming increasingly challenging in today’s environment and poses a massive challenge to political and economic security worldwide, particularly to developing countries.

Gisle Glück Evensen, Partner at Summa Equity, says, “Money laundering and fraud are massive challenges to the financial system and the society through the activities they support. Intix has made a solution that represents a step-change in monitoring and detection capabilities. We have been impressed with the team and their values and look forward to partnering with them for the next leg of the journey.”

About Summa Equity

The firm was founded in 2016 and invests in companies that solve global challenges and create positive Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) outcomes for society. Summa Equity focuses on investing in industries and companies in three sustainability themes: Resource Efficiency, Changing Demographics and Tech-Enabled Transformation.

Currently, Summa Equity manages €4B in Asset Under Management (AUM). So far, the firm has made 22 investments that are advancing the SDGs. These include five investments delivered in 2021, with representation across all the three structural themes, says the company.

The company is also certified as a B Corporation, joining a growing group of companies reinventing business by pursuing purpose as well as profit.

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