BST Awards 2021: Best buy-side market surveillance tool/platform—SteelEye

OVERVIEW

SteelEye is an integrated trade and communications surveillance platform, designed to allow firms to strengthen their risk detection and improve their oversight. 

Typical user-firms: SteelEye can be used by any authorized firm with market abuse and conduct surveillance requirements. However, the platform is particularly geared toward solving buy-side challenges.

SteelEye hired 22 staff members in 2020, 26 so far in 2021, while another 12 will join the business before the end of the year.

SteelEye’s client portfolio has grown to over 100 clients spanning seven jurisdictions. In the last 12 months, new business sales grew by nearly 50%, with annual contract value increasing by 20%.

WHAT’S NEW

During the last 12 months, SteelEye has made a number of enhancements to address challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. It extended its market data coverage with multi-asset class data from Refinitiv and integrated news and social media feeds to strengthen its surveillance offering. It released a new communications surveillance suite, providing financial services firms with e-comms and v-comms (phone calls) oversight tools. It launched an AI-driven lexicon, allowing firms to widen their surveillance watches while reducing false positives. SteelEye also enhanced its automation, market data and AI capabilities, allowing firms impacted by the pandemic to ingest and monitor new data sources and reduce false positives. It increased new business sales by nearly 50%, signing a number of global buy-side firms, including Schroders and Fidelity International. It also hired Bloomberg veteran Robert Friend, opened an office in Portugal, and announced plans to expand into North America.

WHAT’S TO COME 

In 2020, SteelEye raised $17 million in funding. This will be used in 2021 and beyond to expand the firm’s operations in Europe and facilitate SteelEye’s expansion into North America. The funds will be used to build on SteelEye’s existing business plan and further strengthen its product lines. Within communications surveillance, a big focus will be on expanding the translation and transcription services to cater for more global languages. On the trade surveillance side, SteelEye will continue to invest in AI and ML innovation to improve risk detection, while automating processes and reducing false positives.

WHY THEY WON

Through the use of AI and partnerships with data providers like Refinitiv, SteelEye was able to significantly expand its surveillance offering at a time when monitoring trading operations was stressed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and remote working. The company’s most recent funding round has helped it to expand further into the US and grow staff.