News

FRT Expands Capabilities with Strategic Acquisition of Skematic

Medford, MA – July 23, 2024 – Financial Recovery Technologies (FRT), the leading global securities class actions recovery provider, has acquired Skematic, a rapidly growing SaaS company with a suite of software solutions for enhanced compliance management. The acquisition advances FRT’s transformation and expands the company’s capabilities to support financial institutions with innovative solutions designed to address their legal and compliance challenges.

The acquisition of Skematic represents an important milestone in FRT’s journey. Within a short period and with rapid adoption, Skematic introduced a fresh compliance solution to the people who needed it most – compliance professionals. Skematic’s purpose-built technology was designed not only to empower compliance teams, but for the first time, to let compliance shine. Finally, asset management firms can sunset disparate tools - spreadsheets, emails, shared drives and work “tickets” – with the introduction of a unified platform built around workflow management, accountability and reporting.

"Our clients are feeling the pain of disparate compliance systems, and we believe we can play an important role in helping them address these challenges,” said Rob Adler, CEO of FRT. “Skematic’s technology and experienced team perfectly align with our vision of delivering innovative solutions and services to our clients.”

“FRT’s core global securities class action service processes claims and much more,” Adler continued. “We maximize value for investors by optimizing operational processes and minimizing the risk of errors that might cost firms money. Our technology significantly reduces manual workload, human error, and processing times, increasing return on investment and generating revenue for legal departments, all wrapped up in a layer of service and support that results in FRT’s Net Promoter Score of 80 or higher year after year. For years our clients have asked FRT to extend our capabilities to additional areas, and with Skematic we’ve finally found the right fit.”

Skematic is a GRC principles-based workflow management solution built to integrate processes and operate as a central platform for compliance accountability and reporting.

"We see tremendous opportunity to further enhance Skematic’s explosive growth as part of FRT," said Charles Steerman and Brian Kesselman, co-founders of Skematic. “Our long-range vision is a shared focus on client-driven software offerings designed to empower compliance professionals and programs. At its core, Skematic is the platform of the practitioners, designed to improve operational efficiency while reducing risk. FRT commands an incredible share of the market and has a dynamic and innovative set of technology capabilities that will further turbocharge the adoption of the Skematic solution in the market.”

ABOUT FINANCIAL RECOVERY TECHNOLOGIES

Founded in 2008, Financial Recovery Technologies (FRT) is a leading technology-based services firm that helps the investment community identify eligibility, file claims, and collect funds made available in securities class action settlements. Headquartered in Medford, MA, with offices in London, Sydney, and New York, FRT has more than 2,500 institutional clients worldwide who rely on FRT for its industry expertise and dedicated service and operations teams around the world.

ABOUT SKEMATIC

Skematic, a collaboration tool for compliance departments, was founded with the belief that compliance teams deserve better. Backed by more than three decades of regulatory technology experience, our mission is to provide the first workflow management solution designed specifically for regulated industries as viewed through the eyes of compliance professionals. We deliver tools that integrate the people, processes, and systems that make up a firm's global compliance framework.

Skematic Launches Workflow Management Solution for Regulated Industries

New Solution Redefines Collaboration for Compliance Departments

NEW YORK, NY – September 8, 2022 – Skematic today announced the public launch of its first platform, the first of its kind collaboration platform designed specifically for compliance, risk, and legal teams.

Skematic will elevate a firm’s compliance footprint by automating processes and removing the frustration that exists in manual and analog functions. The platform provides a centralized framework that empowers teams to meet the demands of regulatory expectations. With an emphasis on user experience, Skematic provides an end-to-end architecture specific to the dynamic needs of compliance and legal teams.

The global regtech market is poised to reach $22.2 billion by 2027, up from $6.2 billion spent in 2020. And while existing solutions are helping firms with monitoring and reporting, none provide an overall compliance framework. Skematic’s ability to take in data from all other systems is unprecedented and will enable compliance officers to get a complete picture, including the progress and achievements made in their compliance efforts. The stakes are high: firms were issued $345 billion in fines over the past decade. Skematic enables firms of all sizes to operate at the elevated level that was historically reserved only for firms with tier 1 resources.

A Solution Designed Specifically for Compliance

”We’re providing the first workflow management solution designed specifically for compliance teams,” said Skematic’s CEO and Co-founder Charles Steerman. “We're a tool for firm-wide collaboration across the compliance department. Now, compliance professionals can operate in a purpose-built environment to administer controls, include relevant stakeholders, and conduct remediation across the full breadth of a firm's program." The end result is an environment that lets compliance shine.

Despite the existence of technology that solves very specific compliance issues, teams remained handicapped by a lack of a cohesive framework. Legacy systems are designed to address narrow problems such as personal trading, AML or email surveillance. What they cannot do is provide a full view into the state of compliance in an organization, nor can they enable compliance departments to quickly and effortlessly provide reports that speak to stakeholders.

"Skematic has succeeded in creating a tool to help compliance teams scale faster, said Ashley Rodabaugh, who has worked in compliance for the past decade at Nationwide Financial, and as Chief Compliance Officer at M1 Finance. “The tool provides clean and easy organizational tools and necessary escalation flows. I would highly recommend this tool for any compliance team looking to improve their processes and looking for better ways to analyze data for their reporting needs."

“We’ve been listening to compliance teams across the space for a very long time and we are excited to deliver technology that meets teams where they are,“ said Brian Kesselman, Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder of Skematic. “We understand that the right market fit is a system that enhances, rather than redirects, the existing decisions firms have made around people, process, and technology. In lieu of wrestling a generic workflow or task management platform to the ground, we’re offering an ‘in-industry’ option that was made in their image. Unlike other vendors, we will always remain agnostic to the other systems you are using and enhance their effectiveness.”

Solutions Delivered by a Team With More Than Three Decades of Experience in Regulatory Technology and Compliance

Skematic and its platform are backed by 35 years of experience in the intersection of regulatory technology and compliance.

Charles Steerman, the company’s CEO, spent the past 15 years developing and supporting prominent regulatory technology at ComplySci, where he was the firm’s longest tenured employee. Mr. Steerman has spent his career building and scaling compliance technology and has overseen strategy, product, customer success, and implementation teams. He received a JD/MBA from St. John’s University and graduated from George Washington University.

Brian Kesselman, COO, has more than a decade of legal, compliance, and reg-tech experience. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Sales at ComplySci, where he oversaw the generation of millions in ARR, including the company’s record-breaking year in 2021. Prior to ComplySci, he worked at Smarsh, a platform for digital communications compliance. He began his career in legal and compliance at JP Morgan and Forester Capital. Brian received a JD from St. John’s University School of Law and graduated from Indiana University.

Kesselman commented, “What we’ve built is a by-product of listening to clients for a combined three decades. We heeded the call. We’re taking teams from reactive to proactive, and reducing, if not eliminating the dependence of compliance on spreadsheets. Using our system guard-rails compliance programs, which has benefits including: diminished risk, time savings, transparency, and easing change management. The cost savings Skematic unlocks for firms will more than pay for the technology.”

About Skematic

Skematic, a collaboration tool for compliance departments, was founded with the belief that compliance teams deserve better. Backed by more than three decades of regulatory technology experience, our mission is to provide the first workflow management solution designed specifically for regulated industries as viewed through the eyes of compliance professionals. We deliver tools that integrate the people, processes, and systems that make up a firm's global compliance framework.

Learn more about Skematic Solutions at www.skematic.com and on LinkedIn.

Media contact for Skematic:
Daniel Delson
Daniel@magnitude-growth.com