Exclusive: Lars Holst invests in Regtech firm muinmos

LeapRate has learned that former CFH Clearing co-founder and CEO Lars Holst has invested in, and joined the board of, Regtech firm muinmos. He was also appointed as Chairman of muinmos, and will play an active role in the company.

muinmos was founded by Mr. Holst’s CFH Clearing co-founder Remonda Kirketerp-Møller. Ms. Kirketerp-Møller left CFH Clearing in 2012 to set up muinmos, which she has been running since. While Mr. Holst left CFH Clearing just a few months ago, Ms. Kirketerp-Møller has had a reunion of sorts with the company, rejoining CFH Clearing’s board as a non-executive board member.

muinmos specializes in automated client on-boarding. The company’s cloud-based PASS software instantly and globally categorises clients in accordance with MiFID II in the EU or as equivalent in the rest of the world (KYCC), and instantly determines whether a financial institution can on-board a client to trade in a particular service (KYS), product (KYP) and country (KYCO) whilst performing the full suitability and/ appropriateness assessments. It also clears the anti-money laundering requirements (AML) by using a traffic light rating system with full detailed breakdown of the results. PASS is a stand-alone system but can also easily be integrated into existing on / offline on-boarding processes / systems.

Lars Holst’s 20 year career in the FX industry includes several senior executive positions at Saxo Bank and Currenex prior to co-founding CFH in 2008. He was at the helm of CFH for almost a decade, playing a major role in growing the firm into one of the world’s most reputable Prime of Prime brokerages and one of the top interbank STP venues in the world. This led to the sale of the business to PlayTech for $120 million in November 2016.

Investing in muinmos alongside Mr. Holst is Lars Torpe Christoffersen, one of Denmark’s most successful business leaders having held CEO positions for a number of market leading Danish telecoms, IT and communications companies including MACH ApS. He is a member of the Investment Committee at Danish private equity fund Capidea, and has invested in over 25 companies over the last 12 years, many of which are FinTech businesses. Mr. Christoffersen is a much sought after professional Board member, with experience in many major transactions and a significant track record in helping to scale companies. He currently holds Board positions in a number of companies including Banking Circle (Saxo Payments), Youlend, E-supplies, and Chronos. He will also sit on the Board of muinmos.

Lars Holst commented to LeapRate:

Remonda and her team have developed algorithms to systematise global regulations and have successfully created a single fully automated platform for client on-boarding. muinmos has an excellent product and some impressive clients – they are now ready to take the business to the next level. The organisation has the potential to dominate the global RegTech space as it has a completely unparalleled product, based on sophisticated algorithmic rule-based Artificial Intelligence, for which there is a huge need from banks and brokers worldwide.

Remonda was a co-founder of CFH Clearing and, having worked with her previously, I am confident that her vision, expertise and commitment will be a great driver for muinmos’ success. I am looking forward to working with her again and playing a major role in the next phase of her business growth.

Lars Torpe Christoffersen added:

muinmos has a unique proposition and a high calibre team. Its PASS software cuts down on-boarding time from weeks or months to just a few seconds, at a fraction of the cost of standard on-boarding processes. It also ensure continuous compliance by notifying the financial institution of any regulatory changes, 24/7. No other product in the world competes with muinmos and, in an environment of increasing regulation, this makes it a hugely attractive investment opportunity.

Commenting on the investment, Remonda Z. Kirketerp-Møller stated:

This is a game changing moment for muinmos. Having the investment from two highly respected and successful business leaders and industry experts provides a strong external endorsement of our success to date and global growth potential. We are a very ambitious business. I am confident that with Lars and Lars involved in muinmos we can achieve great things!

As we noted above, the CFH bonds run deep and Lars Holst will actually be joining another CFH founder on the muinmos Board. Ashraf Agha joined muinmos as a Board member in April 2017. He has worked in the financial sector for over 28 years including eight years as Head of Treasury at Saxo Bank, three years as Chief Operating Officer of the Foreign Exchange business at Marex Spectrum, and three years as an Executive Director and co-founder at CFH, where he was accountable for all operations. Ashraf has recently held a number of roles involving Compliance and Due Diligence for FCA regulated firms and is passionate about the automation of procedures and processes.

Also on the muinmos Board is Michel Paul André, a founding member of the muinmos team and one of very few senior FinTech specialists. With over 22 years experience as architect and leader in the financial services industry, including 14 years as CTO at Saxo Bank, Michel specialises in internet trading platforms and other technology solutions requiring extreme reliability and scalability. He has a proven track record in technology transformation to meet changing business requirements.

Originally published on LeapRate.