A Cumbrian firm is at the forefront of tackling fraud, thanks to backing from the county’s Local Enterprise Partnership.
Start-up Transaction 360 Degrees, based in Appleby, has developed software to combat fraud with a £50,000 Innovating for Success grant.
The grant met 20% of the total project costs of £246,657 enabling to develop their product and test its feasibility.
It means that, for the first time, a service is available for financial services companies to use that delivers accurate, continuously updated data, to safely screen for know your client and anti-money-laundering risks.
Transaction 360 Degrees CEO and founder, Diana Downing, said it was a game-changing approach for the industry and that the service is crucial for tackling financial crime and for meeting stringent industry data handling standards.
Transaction 360 Degrees relocated to Appleby in August 2021. The company currently has a small core team of data analysts, front-end analysts and back-end developers, with the majority working remotely outside of Cumbria.
Diana said: “Trust is no longer just an emotion. In business it’s also a commodity.
“It has never been more important to understand exactly who you are really doing business with. We use a system of crowd cleansing to verify the data entering our data environment, and then check and cross reference it with other data sources before we rely upon it.
“This unique approach allows us to identify linkages, relationships and dependencies, which were previously unknown.
“The Cumbria LEP grant has been a catalyst for us to develop this product, our second one. The rigour of the grant scheme also helped us to develop our internal project management and as a result we are in a stronger position on other fronts too.
“We have cemented relationships with key partners, have the financial backing of investors and should have a revenue generating client on board soon.”
The company is currently looking to expand its technical and data analysis teams by training local students in data management.
Jo Lappin, chief executive of Cumbria LEP, said: “It is great to see the difference that the Innovating for Success grant programme has made in supporting Transaction 360 Degrees Ltd to deliver their ambitions.
“They are an excellent example of why we launched Innovating for Success – to encourage small and medium sized businesses across Cumbria to invest in either innovating or decarbonising their business.”
“The LEP has been really keen to encourage businesses to relocate here and to secure more businesses in the digital industries – Transaction 360 Degrees Ltd is encouragingly doing both. The business is also aiming to increase fintech skills in our economy by looking to provide training and employment, which is very much welcomed.”
The LEP’s Innovating for Success grant was launched in September 2022. It has resulted in dozens of businesses being awarded a share of a £1 million grant to either support innovation or cut carbon emissions. Grants were split into two areas:
- Innovation: Maximum grants of up to £50,000 to part fund initiatives that turn new ideas into commercially viable and deliverable propositions.
- Carbon reduction: Maximum grants of up to £20,000 to part fund practical projects that will help businesses reduce energy usage or increase renewable energy production.
Independent economic assessment by the LEP has confirmed that over a 10-year period, the Innovating for Success investments will deliver an additional £37 million of economic growth, create an additional 97 full time equivalent jobs and save over 4,160 tonnes of CO2.
