IMDA-accredited start-up makes waves in Singapore’s FinTech space

When Squirro, a Swiss FinTech start-up specialising in Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven data insight and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) solutions, solutions landed its first large enterprise client in Singapore, it provided an impetus to establish an office in Singapore. A local office would not only allow it to better service its new client but also provide a base from which the company can expand its presence in Singapore and across the region.

Once the Singapore office was set up, the Squirro team quickly realised that it needed local support to help it navigate an unfamiliar business ecosystem. This meant support from investors, customers, implementation partners, and local industry players so that the company could truly integrate itself into Singapore’s start-up ecosystem. An investor introduced Squirro to the IMDA Accreditation programme and once the team learnt about the myriad benefits of accreditation, including enhanced access to government and large enterprise buyers, it wasted no time in signing up.

An eye-opening experience with the IMDA Accreditation programme

Moritz Müller, General Manager of Asia, Squirro, shared that the IMDA Accreditation programme offered the team insights into the significant business and partnership opportunities available in the market. He also saw how being accredited by IMDA burnishes Squirro’s credentials and better positions it among government and large enterprises. His colleague, Jan Ebner, Head of Product at Squirro, added, “With the IMDA Accreditation Programme, we were able to establish ourselves as a leading provider of Insight Engine solutions in Singapore. We were excited to continue pushing the boundaries of what's possible with this technology.”

The IMDA accreditation process involved a comprehensive financial and technical evaluation of the organisation, which helped Squirro develop a deeper understanding of its strengths and weaknesses and gain more confidence in the effectiveness of their solutions. For Moritz and Jan, the rigorous evaluation process also surfaced valuable feedback on their business model and growth strategy in the region, ultimately enabling them to overcome various challenges and seize new opportunities in the Singapore market.

The recognition provided by the IMDA Accreditation programme proved to be a clear advantage for Squirro, as the team broadened their network and acquired more clients. To date, Squirro has worked with several government agencies and other corporate clients, most notably Standard Chartered Bank and OCBC Bank, solidifying its position as a leading provider of AI-powered business insights in Singapore. In addition, the programme has not only helped Squirro to enhance its collaboration with clients but also enabled the company to build stronger partnerships with other ecosystem players, facilitating the development of forward-looking solutions.

Deepening partnerships to co-create innovate solutions

With its added credibility through the IMDA Accreditation programme, Squirro continues to establish important partnerships with clients and other industry players and co-create innovative solutions that cater to the evolving needs of the financial services industry and its customers.

For clients such as Standard Chartered Bank, Squirro had joined forces with Synechron, SC Ventures, and the Digital Channel and Data Analytics (DCDA) function in Standard Chartered Bank’s Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking (CCIB) team to develop the Client Insights solution, powered by the Insight Engine. The solution has won several awards, including the 2021 BIG Innovation AI Excellence Awards in the "Natural Language Processing" category, and "Best Digital Collaboration Project" at The Asset Triple A Awards. These accolades are a testament to the power of Squirro's solutions and their ability to drive real-world results. Squirro now services numerous other use cases for Standard Chartered Bank alone.

Inspired by this successful adoption of the Squirro Insight Engine, OCBC Bank has also adopted Squirro as the enterprise search and insights solution for its corporate banking department in Singapore, with plans to roll it out globally. Squirro’s machine learning framework is used to automatically classify all incoming documents and bankers utilise Squirro’s powerful search dashboards to find and access their business-critical documents.

Beyond this, Squirro actively innovates its solutions with local industry collaborations. Squirro worked with IMDA-accredited Inspire-Tech Pte Ltd to integrate the Squirro Search Engine into Inspire-Tech’s EasiShare filesharing solution and offer a state-of-the-art search experience for its clients.

With the emergence of ChatGPT and Generative AI in the past year, Squirro has now combined its Semantic Search technology with the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) to provide out-of-the-box Retrieval Augmented Generation solutions. Moritz predicts that this technology will be a game changer: “We are convinced that Retrieval Augmented Generation is the key to the Generative AI fuelled digital revolution that has just started. Combining our innovative information retrieval stack with LLMs enables enterprises and government organisations to ask questions on their own data.”

With the IMDA Accreditation programme, Squirro continues to push the boundaries of innovation and deliver high-quality digital solutions for its customers. Being accredited has allowed Squirro to tap into a wide range of opportunities and collaborations, helping them to establish themselves as a reliable and serious player in the Singapore market. If you are a business looking to expand your reach in Singapore like Squirro, getting accredited by IMDA may be the next step for you.