Dublin, Waterford and New York-based FundRecs was originally founded in 2013 in Waterford by Des O’Donohoe, Alan Meaney and Padraig O’Scanaill.
The founders of FundRecs were approached by a large bank to develop a new reconciliation platform for its fund administration unit.
The company is, in many ways, testament to the quality of software that emerges from a region that has already yielded amazing success stories such as Feed Henry (acquired by Red Hat for €63.5m), Immersive VR and Tramore-based NearForm.
“We were started before fintech became a buzzy term”
In recent weeks FundRecs was selected by Sanne, a leading global provider of alternative assets and corporate business services, to provide it with a tailored reconciliation automation platform through its Velocity fund administration software. Velocity enables fund administrators to process valuations faster and with increased oversight.
The perfect pivot
ThinkBusiness caught up with O’Scanaill during a visit to the company’s development centre at ArcLabs in Waterford.
“The founding team originally began work on an entirely separate project around collaboration software and we struggled to make a business out of it. But what we did learn was that we worked well together and because Des and Alan’s background were in financial industry it made sense for us to do something for financial services.”
O’Scanaill pointed out that despite the scale of many large financial organisations, there are a lot of manual processes and FundRecs’ technology became something the financial industry was crying out for.
“That pivot was like a breadth of fresh air and we knew we were on to something. We went to Enterprise Ireland with the idea and they already had a line of potential clients.”
Today FundRecs has grown to have operations in Dublin, Waterford and most recently a presence in New York to take on the North American marketplace.
“The funds administration industry on a daily basis has to reconcile their data and for audit purposes that has to be tracked. Our technology keeps fund administrators on top of their game and gives them peace of mind if they have to conduct an audit.”
O’Scanaill said that FundRecs has more than 20 key clients, including banks and fund administrators.
“Our move to the US is being driven by Alan and he’s actually based out of the Bank of Ireland Startlab in Manhattan. Enterprise Ireland has a great network in the US and we are focusing on opportunities in the east coast financial services industry.”
Opening doors
As CTO, O’Scanaill heads up FundRecs’ tech and development team based at ArcLabs. “We moved into ArcLabs in 2014. Originally it was just me coding in my bedroom but once we started hiring we needed a proper premises. We have eight developers here and we’ll soon move to bigger rooms at ArcLabs.”
At least half of FundRecs’ development team are hires from Waterford Institute of Technology and O’Scanaill has high praise for the quality of the graduates. “They are of a very high standard and they come out of college with the right attitude and ready to work.”
If fintech is the future of financial services, O’Scanaill believes FundRecs is in the vanguard. “We were started before fintech became a buzzy term.”
Asked how Ireland can better foster fintechs, he said: “Everything we need is here. As a fintech selling to financial services we have the entire industry on our doorstep in Dublin with the IFSC. Enterprise Ireland has been a fantastic support in opening doors for us in overseas markets.
“We consider FundRecs to be both a Waterford and Dublin success story,” O’Scanaill concluded.
“I was based in Waterford while Alan and Des were in Dublin. In Waterford I have a 10-minute commute to the office, worst case 15 minutes.
“And I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”
Pictured above: Padraid O’Scanaill, co-founder, FundRecs. Image: John Kennedy
Written by John Kennedy (john.kennedy3@boi.com)
Published: 28 February, 2020
