Rand Merchant Investment Holdings (JSE:RMI) through AlphaCode, RMI’s innovation hub for fintech entrepreneurs and Nedbank Private Equity (“NPE”) through its private equity investment vehicle, BoE Private Equity Investments, have each acquired minority shareholdings in Entersekt in a multi-million dollar transaction. Entersekt is a Stellenbosch-based innovator that has developed world-class push-based authentication and app security technology.
The capital injection will be used to fund international expansion and research and development. All regulatory approvals have been obtained, including the Competition Commission of South Africa.
Entersekt targets global enterprises which require user-friendly and solid authentication and security products for interactions with their customers. Entersekt’s patented security products already protect close to 100 million transactions monthly and comply with the most stringent global regulatory guidelines. While the focus is financial services, the products and solutions have wider application in industries such as healthcare and insurance which also face security and regulatory challenges.
The company’s patented solution creates a secure channel between enterprise and user that not even Entersekt themselves can intercept, with banking clients seeing up to a 99% reduction in mobile fraud losses since implementation. Entersekt has already secured several large banking clients including Absa, Nedbank, Capitec, Investec, Swisscard, Equity Bank, Ecobank, Pluscard and First Bank of Colorado. The company has also extended beyond the banking sector providing authentication solutions for Old Mutual among others, and has signed reseller agreements in Europe and in the US. Entersekt continues to have a strong sales pipeline.
Mobile authentication is a fast-growing industry that is an enabler of financial services driven by the need to perform riskier transactions more simply without complex authentication processes. Recently a client’s customer processed a $65 million transaction via the mobile using Entersekt’s encryption technology. Entersekt’s disruptive model significantly reduces fraud at lower cost than other technologies while providing superior fraud prevention.
Dominique Collett, RMI Senior Investment Executive and head of AlphaCode explains the rationale for investment, “RMI through AlphaCode seeks investments in next generation fintech opportunities. We look for high growth businesses that are ready to scale and are led by strong entrepreneurial management teams. Entersekt met all these criteria. As RMI has experience of scaling companies globally and as providers of growth capital, we believe that this deal will add value to our portfolio of blue chip investments. It is AlphaCode’s second investment after Merchant Capital, which provides SMEs with working capital finance.”
Marthin Greyling, a Principal in the Nedbank Private Equity team commented: “Entersekt’s proven success in deploying its unique product offering at leading financial institutions as well as their strategic positioning to take advantage of the global growth in mobile application security and transaction authentication, makes Entersekt an appealing investment. We look forward to partnering with AlphaCode and the existing shareholders to support the company’s global growth aspirations. “
“We are immensely honoured that investors of such a high calibre have endorsed our long-term vision in this way,” said Schalk Nolte, Entersekt’s CEO. “We look forward to working together at a board level to unlock the significant potential we see in the global market. We can now accelerate beyond our very healthy organic growth and rapidly establish a presence in new territories. We have a solid foothold in Africa, Europe and the United States, but our technology can provide as much value to enterprises in other regions. Enterprise-grade security solutions that streamline consumer mobile experiences, meet compliance obligations, and provide a launchpad for innovation have wide and growing applicability.”
