Keith Todd’s KRM22 raises £10m in AIM floatation

Former Ffastfill chairman Keith Todd has today floated his new risk management investment vehicle, KRM22, on AIM raising £10.32 million.

The initial public offering was backed by a series of investors including Hargreave Hale, Octopus Investments, Livingbridge, Rathbone and Artemis Investment Management. Financial technology company Cinnober is also an investor.  

KRM22, which is headed up by executive chairman and chief executive officer Todd supported by Karen Bach and Stephen Casner, will invest in businesses across the risk management spectrum.

The company has been launched with the aim of providing a “holistic, real time view of risk” across an organisation.  

KRM22 is building a risk management console that is designed to bring together all existing risk management functions within an organisation. The business will also integrate businesses that it invests in into the console.

Users will be able to customise the cloud-based software-as-a-service console to their requirements and set their own risk parameters through an API.

“Fragmentation of risk management systems is a huge problem across the industry,” said Todd. “Some firms have 30-40 risk management systems in place.

“There has been a massive increase in costs across the capital markets driven by increased regulatory requirements and the need to manage risk at a much more granular level than before.

“This is hitting return on capital invested and there is a clear need to simplify the systems used to manage risk across an organisation.”

KRM22, which also include former CME board member Jim Oliff and former DTCC DerivServ chief Sandy Broderick on its board, will begin beta testing of its console in Q4 2018 with a view to launching in Q1 2019.  

The firm will initially target Tier 2 and 3 banks and hedge funds operational in the derivatives markets. However, Todd said that he is already having “very constructive discussions” with Tier 1 banks.

The company has identified over 20 potential acquisition targets and is in advanced non-binding discussions with two companies.