Owlin Company Profile

Background

Founded in 2012, Owlin is a Dutch technology company specializing in AI-driven platforms for external risk screening and monitoring. The company's mission is to shape a better-informed world by providing organizations with critical insights into counterparties, clients, vendors, suppliers, competitors, and prospects proactively, continuously, and in real-time. Owlin's platform leverages advanced analytics to transform global news flows into actionable intelligence, enabling clients to monitor risk, ESG factors, opportunities, and trends from over 3 million sources across multiple languages in near real-time.

Key Strategic Focus

Owlin's strategic focus centers on enhancing third-party risk management and market intelligence through AI and natural language processing (NLP). The company offers solutions for screening and monitoring vendors, suppliers, and counterparties using both traditional and alternative data sources. Key technologies utilized include machine learning algorithms and proprietary news pipelines that process data from over 3 million media sources in 17 languages. Owlin primarily targets financial institutions, payment service providers, asset managers, banks, pension funds, rating agencies, consultancies, and corporates across global markets.

Financials and Funding

Owlin has raised a total of $3.8 million in funding. The company's funding history includes:

Seed Round (December 2012): Raised $250,000 to continue the development of its real-time news analysis platform.

Series A (June 2019): Secured $3.5 million from Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures.

Notable investors include MassChallenge, Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures, and Rockstart. The capital has been utilized to expand Owlin's technological capabilities, enhance its platform offerings, and support global expansion efforts.

Technological Platform and Innovation

Owlin's platform is distinguished by its integration of AI and NLP to provide real-time risk intelligence. Key technological features include:

Proprietary News Pipeline: Aggregates data from over 3 million media sources, offering comprehensive coverage across multiple languages.

Machine Translation Models: Supports global language coverage, including English, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian, enabling clients to monitor international entities effectively.

Consumer Review Monitoring: Utilizes consumer reviews to detect potential risks, identify trend shifts, and focus on relevant signals.

Traditional Data Integration: Provides alerts on relevant signals from watchlists, blocklists, state-owned enterprise data, politically exposed persons data, and sanctions data.

Leadership Team

Sjoerd Leemhuis: Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer.

Richard Kraayenhaagen, Ph.D.: Co-Founder, Founding Partner & Advisor.

Bas van Ooyen: Co-Founder & Artificial Intelligence and Backend Developer.

Stefan Peekel: Chief Growth Officer.

Sarah Lane: Business Advisor.

Leadership Changes

In 2021, Owlin appointed Stefan Peekel as its Chief Growth Officer to drive the company's expansion and growth initiatives.

Competitor Profile

Market Insights and Dynamics

The market for AI-driven risk management and market intelligence solutions is experiencing significant growth, driven by increasing regulatory requirements and the need for real-time insights. Organizations are seeking advanced tools to monitor third-party risks, adverse media, and consumer sentiment to make informed decisions and mitigate potential threats.

Competitor Analysis

Key competitors in the AI-driven risk management and market intelligence space include:

Fligoo: An AI-driven tech company focusing on behavior prediction.

Finquest: A big data and AI company focused on identifying and connecting clients with relevant off-market acquisition and investment opportunities.

TSC (The Stakeholder Company): Develops and operates an integrated issue and stakeholder management platform.

Futu Securities: Provides an investment and trading platform.

Strategic Collaborations and Partnerships

Owlin has established significant collaborations to strengthen its market position and expand capabilities:

Adyen: A leading payment platform that leverages Owlin to monitor merchants and continuously mitigate risks.

Venminder: A third-party risk management solution provider that utilizes Owlin to help clients monitor adverse media concerning third parties.

Worldline: A global leader in payment services that employs Owlin to efficiently monitor its vast merchant portfolio, reducing operational time and mitigating financial and reputational risks.

Operational Insights

Owlin's strategic considerations in relation to major competitors include:

Comprehensive Data Coverage: Owlin's proprietary news pipeline and machine translation models provide extensive coverage across multiple languages and geographies, offering a competitive advantage in monitoring global entities.

Integration of Alternative Data Sources: The incorporation of consumer reviews and adverse media monitoring enables Owlin to detect risks faster and provide more nuanced insights compared to competitors.

User-Centric Platform Delivery: Owlin offers insights via dashboards, APIs, and newsletters, ensuring seamless integration into clients' workflows and enhancing user experience.

Strategic Opportunities and Future Directions

Owlin's strategic roadmap includes:

Expansion of Data Sources: Continuously enhancing the platform by integrating additional data sources to provide a more comprehensive view of third-party risks.

Advancement in AI and NLP Capabilities: Investing in the development of more sophisticated AI and NLP models to improve the accuracy and relevance of insights.