A Dublin-based software company that develops software for local and IFSC-based life assurance and pension funds has signed two major deals valued at €3m with Irish Life International and Norwich Union International, siliconrepublic.com has learned. Financial Risk Services’ (FRS) technology is now responsible for administering more than €200bn worth of funds daily.
FRS, which was established in 1999 has so far acquired more than 50pc of the Irish life assurance market as well as making a large foray into the European life assurance market, which has a substantial presence in Dublin in the form of IFSC companies.
It is estimated that some €200bn worth of funds in the Irish and European markets are currently managed every day through the InvestPro system, by firms that include Friends First, Anglo Irish Bank, San Paolo IMI, J Rothschild Assurance, Quinn-life, HSBC, Goodbody, Percana and Area Life.
The company, which was founded by four actuaries, currently employs 10 people.
According to Frank Carr, head of sales and marketing at FRS, the deal to implement its technology with Irish Life was signed towards the end of last year and was fully implemented in March.
The deal with Norwich Union was signed in January and delivered in April, Carr explained.
He said that the company is currently in negotiations with global resellers about delivering the system to financial services firms in Europe and Asia.
“We have won a lot of business on the strength of referrals from satisfied customers,” he told siliconrepublic.com. “If you have a good delivery for one institution word spreads and we now have 17 implementations of the system in Ireland and Europe.”
He said that the company is targeting life assurance funds managers, where the majority of international hubs are based in Dublin, London and Luxembourg. “Our system is now almost universally deployed in Dublin.”
Carr explained that FRS is entirely self-funded by its founders and on the back of winning business and currently is not seeking to raise venture capital funding.
“Our focus right now is on international growth and we’ve decided that the best path is through resellers with that international reach. We are hoping to sign contracts with resellers in the coming months. The product usually requires a four month installation, so clearly is not an off-the-shelf solution and requires specialist capabilities,” Carr explained.
By John Kennedy
