Connect with us

Technology

EPAM Announces Agreement to Acquire First Derivative, Expanding Global Financial Services Practice

Published

2 hours ago

on

Strategic Acquisition will Enhance Capabilities in Capital Markets, Banking Operations and Asset Servicing, Strengthening Client Offerings Globally

NEWTOWN, Pa. and NEWRY, N. Ireland, Oct. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM), a leading digital transformation services and product engineering company, today announced its agreement to acquire First Derivative, a Northern Ireland-headquartered managed services and consulting business for the capital markets industry with more than 1,800 employees worldwide and major delivery capability in the U.K., Ireland, North America and APAC.

EPAM will leverage First Derivative’s strong industry experience and brand to deliver a comprehensive set of AI-enabled end-to-end capabilities to clients in banking, capital markets and other financially regulated businesses across North America, Europe and APAC. Through the acquisition, First Derivative will bring more than 100 new clients under the EPAM umbrella, offering unmatched value and setting a new standard for technology services in the financial services industry.

“We’re pleased to expand our financial services portfolio and diversify our global footprint in key regions with the addition of First Derivative’s deep expertise across capital markets, banking operations and asset servicing,” said Balazs Fejes, President of Global Business and Chief Revenue Officer, EPAM. “The combination of EPAM’s digital technology and engineering heritage with First Derivative’s business services and packaged implementation software offerings, bolstered by the transformative potential of Generative AI, will establish valuable end-to-end capabilities for our clients. This enables them to evolve and scale their digital ecosystems, gain deeper data insights, enhance operations and drive innovation, all while minimizing risks and maintaining regulatory compliance.”

First Derivative specializes in delivering engineering, technical and business services to help the world’s leading financial institutions, including the top 20 global banks, stay compliant, reduce costs and enhance efficiency through tech modernization. Through highly customizable, holistic and easy-to-integrate solutions, clients are equipped to leverage the power of data and AI to enhance decision making.

“EPAM’s commitment to engineering excellence and its transformational capabilities, including GenAI, will strengthen and expand our ability to shape the future for clients, including the world’s largest investment banks,” said David Collins, CEO, First Derivative. “As a top employer for highly skilled engineers, analysts and consultants in capital markets, we are excited to continue our momentum by joining the EPAM team and extending our mission to help organizations accelerate agility and remain competitive in an ever-evolving landscape. Together, we are positioned to be the market leading services provider with a highly differentiated capability, combining strong domain expertise and the best in modern technology. We will offer a full suite of end-to-end business and technology services to the world’s leading investment banks.”

First Derivative is a division of FD Technologies plc, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.

“For more than 25 years, First Derivative has helped the world’s largest global banks and financial services companies solve their most pressing operational, data and technological challenges,” said Seamus Keating, CEO, FD Technologies plc. “With its combination of domain knowledge and technical expertise, we are proud of First Derivative’s proven track record and long-standing relationships with blue-chip financial institutions and look forward to seeing its continued success.”

To learn more about EPAM’s growing financial services capabilities, visit www.epam.com/industries/financial-services.

Details Regarding Proposed Acquisition of First Derivative
The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of necessary regulatory clearances, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024. Stone Key Partners LLC served as the exclusive financial advisor and Faegre Drinker served as the legal advisor to EPAM.

ABOUT EPAM SYSTEMS
Since 1993, EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM) has used its software engineering expertise to become a leading global provider of digital engineering, cloud and AI-enabled transformation services, and a leading business and experience consulting partner for global enterprises and ambitious startups. We address our clients’ transformation challenges by fusing EPAM Continuum’s integrated strategy, experience and technology consulting with our 30+ years of engineering execution to speed our clients’ time to market and drive greater value from their innovations and digital investments.

We make GenAI real with our AI LLM orchestration, testing and engineering solutions, EPAM DIAL, EPAM EliteA™ and EPAM AI/RUN™, respectively.

We deliver globally, but engage locally with our expert teams of consultants, architects, designers and engineers, making the future real for our clients, our partners and our people around the world.

We believe the right solutions are the ones that improve people’s lives and fuel competitive advantage for our clients across diverse industries. Our thinking comes to life in the experiences, products and platforms we design and bring to market.

Added to the S&P 500 and the Forbes Global 2000 in 2021 and recognized by Glassdoor and Newsweek as a Top 100 Best Workplace, our multidisciplinary teams serve customers across six continents. We are proud to be among the top 15 companies in Information Technology Services in the Fortune 1000 and to be recognized as a leader in the IDC MarketScapes for Worldwide Experience Build Services, Worldwide Experience Design Services and Worldwide Software Engineering Services as well as a leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Custom Software Development Services, Worldwide.*

Learn more at www.epam.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

*Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. 

ABOUT FD TECHNOLOGIES
FD Technologies is a group of data-driven businesses that unlock the value of insight, hindsight and foresight to drive organisations forward. The Group comprises KX, which provides software to accelerate AI-driven innovation and First Derivative, providing consulting services which drive digital transformation in financial services and capital markets. FD Technologies operates from 13 locations across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, and employs more than 2,400 people worldwide.

For further information, please visit www.fdtechnologies.com and www.kx.com. 

Forward-Looking Statement 
This press release includes certain statements which may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Such forward-looking statements are mainly based on our current expectations and estimates of future events and trends, which affect or may affect our business and operations. These statements may include words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “estimate” or similar expressions. Those future events and trends may relate to, among other things, the closing of the Acquisition, which may not close on the terms or timing anticipated, or at all, the satisfaction or waiver of any conditions to the closing of the Acquisition, the anticipated impacts or benefits of the Acquisition, developments relating to the war in Ukraine and escalation of the war in the surrounding region, political and civil unrest or military action in the geographies where we conduct business and operate, difficult conditions in global capital markets, foreign exchange markets and the broader economy, and the effect that these events may have on client demand and our revenues, operations, access to capital, and profitability. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include general economic conditions, the risk factors discussed in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and the factors discussed in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, particularly under the headings “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, they are subject to several risks and uncertainties and are made based on information currently available to us. EPAM undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities law.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2223594/4952876/EPAM_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/epam-announces-agreement-to-acquire-first-derivative-expanding-global-financial-services-practice-302268372.html

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Adyen appoints Ben Wong as General Manager, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong

Published

48 mins ago

on

October 7, 2024

By

SINGAPORE, Oct. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, today announces the appointment of Ben Wong as General Manager, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. In his new role, Ben will oversee the company’s commercial operations in the region, focusing on growth strategies and strengthening partnerships in key markets like Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

A Singaporean native, Ben joined Adyen in 2016 in a technical role where he acted as a technology consultant to deliver strategic counsel to enterprises, at a time when the payments industry was in its nascency. Since making the switch to sales in 2017, Ben has led the company to major successes across retail, ecommerce, hospitality industries. His technical acumen, coupled with a deep understanding of the market and merchants’ needs has also allowed him to guide the commercial teams to deliver cross-channel payments excellence to businesses in Singapore.

Prior to Adyen, Ben spent half a decade working in fintech, information technology and project management. His tenure at previous organizations built a strong foundation for technical expertise and problem-solving skills in the fast-evolving payments industry.

“We are thrilled to have Ben in this new role, bringing his expertise and insights from working with customers in different sectors to the broader region,” said Warren Hayashi, President, Asia Pacific at Adyen. “Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have been pivotal markets for us and with Ben’s demonstrated experience in Adyen, we are confident that he will lead the region to address the ever-evolving needs of our customers.”

“I am honored to step into this new role and contribute to Adyen’s continued growth,” said Ben Wong, General Manager, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong at Adyen. “My deep roots in the industry fuel my drive for creating exceptional experiences for consumers and building strong, lasting partnerships with our customers. I look forward to driving the business forward and achieving sustained growth for our customers and us in a region filled with immense potential.”

About Adyen

Adyen (AMS: ADYEN) is the financial technology platform of choice for leading companies. By providing end-to-end payments capabilities, data-driven insights, and financial products in a single global solution, Adyen helps businesses achieve their ambitions faster. With offices around the world, Adyen works with the likes of Meta, LVMH, SHEIN, Uber, L’Oréal, Cathay Pacific, Grab, Klook, and Singapore Airlines. For more information, visit adyen.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/adyen-appoints-ben-wong-as-general-manager-southeast-asia-and-hong-kong-302268445.html

SOURCE Adyen

Continue Reading

Technology

CogX Unveils Innovative Knowledge Networking Platform, Proxxi AI, at the CogX Leadership Summit

Published

48 mins ago

on

October 7, 2024

By

New platform uses pioneering “Expert-in-the-Loop” model that matches questions from users with the best specialists to answer them – all assisted by state-of-the-art AI

LONDON, Oct. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — CogX Group Ltd, the tech community and online platforms group, which brings together the sector’s leaders and innovators from across the world, will showcase today its new knowledge networking platform, Proxxi AI, an “expert-in-the-loop” model that connects users and specialists to provide bespoke answers to their questions, assisted by state-of-the art AI.

Proxxi AI will be unveiled later at CogX’s London Leadership Summit at the historic Royal Albert Hall. Proxxi AI understands user questions, identifies the best available experts, assists them with answers based on their own trained “proxxi”, and features a broad range of subjects to deliver the best of AI, but with human oversight.

The live stream of the Summit will be available on YouTube from 10 am here.

Proxxi AI aims to play a leading role within a global knowledge management marketplace projected to grow beyond $1 trillion by 2026 (MarketsandMarkets), with organisations seeking faster, reliable, and lower-cost ways to access expertise and stay ahead of the curve.

Employing the latest large language models (LLMs), Proxxi AI will continuously learn and improve each expert’s proxxi and ranking. The platform will initially be accessed via Slack, Teams, and the CogX Insights app. Shortly after it will be available via API for web and mobile app developers. It supports a broad range of use cases for startups and enterprises, governments, universities and research institutions.

CogX will be demonstrating Proxxi AI at today’s Leadership Summit throughout the day.

Also announced today is the organisation of CogX’s businesses — CogX Ltd (UK Events and the CogX Insights app) and Proxxi AI (Knowledge Network)— under CogX Group Ltd  enabling the community to connect both in-person at our events, and through its two online platforms.

Charlie Muirhead, Founder and CEO of CogX, said:

“CogX’s mission is to convene our community to address the question: How do we get the next 10 years right?  To do so, we need to connect the right people to the right expertise, just when they need it.

So we’re hugely excited to be sharing Proxxi AI today at the Leadership Summit, which will instantly connect people to subject specialists through Slack and Teams our own CogX Insights app, and shortly after via our API for web and mobile app developers.

By blending AI-driven insights with trusted expert oversight, we will empower organisations, large and small, to better navigate the rapid technological changes taking place and enhance their overall performance.”

Notes to editors

About CogX

Co-founded by Charlie Muirhead in 2017, CogX is a tech community and online platforms business that convenes inspirational events featuring leading voices from a huge range of sectors. The community brings together entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics, investors and policy makers both in-person, and online.

More about CogX Leadership Summit London

Taking place at the Royal Albert Hall – the historic venue that hosted the 1851 Great Exhibition, a showcase of the 1st Industrial Revolution – the CogX Summit will focus on the 4th Industrial Revolution, an era of technological convergence that will change the way we live and work.

The Summit is being held on Monday 7th October 2024, and will bring together over 100 world-class speakers, and host over 20 editorially curated salons and mixers to answer the central question: “How do we seize the AI opportunity?

Leaders from Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Meta, Hugging Face, Northern Data, Stanford University, and companies at the forefront of generative AI will join over 2,500 delegates to discuss how to apply AI safely and responsibly today and improve productivity and drive business growth.

The live stream of the Summit is available on YouTube from 10am here. (https://shorturl.at/lj3HP).

 

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/cogx-unveils-innovative-knowledge-networking-platform-proxxi-ai-at-the-cogx-leadership-summit-302268326.html

Continue Reading

Technology

LG Innotek Becomes Industry’s First to Use AI to Prevent Input of Defective Raw Materials in Production

Published

48 mins ago

on

October 7, 2024

By

Achieved early detection of cause of defects in raw materials through AI, becoming “first to overcome this challenge in the industry”Applied to high-value semiconductor substrates, analyzing raw material defects in only one minuteReduces defect analysis time by up to 90%

SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Today, LG Innotek (CEO Moon Hyuksoo) announced the development and application of the industry’s first “Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based inspection system for incoming raw materials”, designed to detect defects at the point of receipt and prevent the use of substandard raw materials in the process.

LG Innotek applied its AI-based inspection technology, developed by combining material information and AI image processing technologies, to the RF-SiP (Radio Frequency System-in-Package) process. Recently, the technology was also introduced for the FC-BGA (Flip Chip Ball Grid Array), and is expected to further enhance the competitiveness and quality of LG Innotek’s high-value semiconductor substrate products.

Previously, incoming raw materials underwent only a visual inspection before entering the production process. However, the continued advancement of semiconductor substrate technology changed this. Even after improving all in-process defect causes, failures in reliability evaluations continued to rise. This led the quality of incoming materials to gain attention as a decisive factor affecting reliability evaluations. 

The core raw materials (i.e. Prepreg (PPG), Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF), and Copper-Clad Laminate (CCL)) that comprise semiconductor substrates arrive as a mixture of glass fibers, inorganic compounds, and other components. In the past, air voids (gaps between particles) or foreign particles generated during the material mixing process did not significantly impact product performance. However, as substrate specifications, such as circuit spacing, have become increasingly stringent, the presence of air voids and foreign particles, depending on their size, has started to cause defects.

As a result, it is virtually impossible to identify which part of the raw material is responsible for the defect using traditional visual inspection methods, which has become a significant challenge for the industry.

If we were to compare one lot of raw materials mixture (unit of raw materials with the same characteristics that goes into the production process) to a batch of cookie dough, it is impossible for the eye to perceive the concentration of salt or sugar in a certain portion, the number of air holes in the dough, or the number of foreign particles.

LG Innotek has found a way to overcome this industry challenge with AI. Its “AI-based Inspection System for Incoming Raw Materials” has been trained with tens of thousands of pieces of data on the composition of materials that are either suitable or unsuitable for a product. Based on this, it analyzes the components and defective areas of semiconductor substrate raw materials in only one minute, with an accuracy rate of over 90%, and visualizes quality deviations in each lot of raw materials.

By using AI machine learning to visualize, quantify, and standardize material configurations optimized for quality, LG Innotek has been able to prevent defective raw materials from entering the production process. The company can change the material design based on the quality deviation information visualized by the AI system, allowing it to ensure that the quality of the raw materials lot is uniform at a suitable level before entering the process.

An LG Innotek official commented, “With the “AI-based Inspection System for Incoming Raw Materials”, the time required to analyze defects has been decreased by up to 90%, and the cost of resolving the causes of defects has been significantly reduced.”

LG Innotek plans to enhance the AI system’s detection capabilities by sharing raw materials-related data with customers and suppliers in the substrate sector through digital partnerships.

Additionally, the company aims to expand the system’s application to optical solutions, such as camera modules, where the image-based detection of material defects can play a crucial role.

LG Innotek CTO S.David Roh said, “With the “AI-based inspection system”, we will complete LG Innotek’s unique AI ecosystem, which delivers exceptional customer value by identifying causes of product defects early in the production process.” He added, “We will continue innovating in digital production technology to create top-quality products at the lowest cost and in the shortest time.”

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2312913/logo__LG_Innotek_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/lg-innotek-becomes-industrys-first-to-use-ai-to-prevent-input-of-defective-raw-materials-in-production-302268554.html

Continue Reading

Trending