CDPQ Expands Its Artificial Intelligence Offering

Cdpq

Creation of a $250-million fund dedicated to AI
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) has announced the creation of a fund dedicated to Québec businesses with a proven track record in artificial intelligence. Funded with a $250-million envelope, the CDPQ–AI Fund aims to ramp up growth in businesses whose product offerings are based on the development of AI, and to accelerate the commercialization of artificial intelligence solutions.

“Since Montréal is emerging as a global beacon of excellence in artificial intelligence, we need to enhance our offering and ramp up the financial and development support we provide AI businesses through the various stages of their growth,” said Charles Émond, Executive Vice-President, Québec and Global Strategic Planning at CDPQ. “This fund will encourage the commercialization of new artificial intelligence solutions, as they are of considerable strategic value to all sectors of our economy.”

This fund, managed by CDPQ’s Venture Capital and Technology team, will serve technology companies that have developed demonstrably sound business models and shown a capacity for continued strong growth. They will need to have a well-established management team as well as a dedicated team with AI experience.Over the years, CDPQ has invested in many venture capital firms1 that target artificial intelligence companies in the startup phase. The CDPQ-AI Fund’s objectives include supporting the development of the most promising businesses to emerge from these funds, once they have reached their growth phase.

Note that in 2018 this co-investment strategy, combined with a CDPQ-sponsored venture capital fund, has resulted in CDPQ making direct investments in AI businesses, such as Hopper (fund: BrightSpark), TrackTik (fund: iNovia), or even Breather (fund: Real Ventures). The CDPQ-AI Fund will be used for new transactions of this kind.

In addition to this new fund for growing technology companies, CDPQ has recently announced a series of initiatives and partnerships targeting young AI companies in the startup phase.

CDPQ, in collaboration with Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, created Espace CDPQ | Axe IA to house nine startups from innovative sectors. They will also have access to Mila’s academic resources and advice, coaching and a network of experts from la Caisse and Espace CDPQ, to accelerate the commercialization of their AI solutions. Furthermore, CDPQ will soon have a laboratory, on Mila’s premises, that it can make available to certain businesses in the portfolio that have clearly defined AI integration programs.

Espace CDPQ, a CDPQ subsidiary, is also a founding partner of the Creative Destruction Lab Montréal which, through its extensive academic and business networks, is driving the development of AI technology companies with strong growth potential.

It should also be noted that NextAI, an innovation program designed to create artificial intelligence companies and commercialize technologies, has just moved into Espace CDPQ. Active in both Montréal and Toronto, NextAI accelerates and develops businesses in the seed capital and startup phases. NextAI works with teams that are commercializing research on AI and are interested in building global businesses.


1 iNovia, Real Ventures, BrightSpark, White Star Capital, Relay Ventures, Georgian Parners, RV Orbit, Luge Capital, InnovExport, Anges Québec Capital, CTI Life Sciences and Lumira Ventures

À PROPOS DE LA CAISSE DE DÉPÔT ET PLACEMENT DU QUÉBEC

La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) est un investisseur institutionnel de long terme qui gère des fonds provenant principalement de régimes de retraite et d’assurances publics et parapublics. Son actif net s’élève à 309,5 G$ CA au 31 décembre 2018. Un des plus importants gestionnaires de fonds institutionnels au Canada, la Caisse investit dans les grands marchés financiers, ainsi qu’en placements privés, en infrastructures, en immobilier et en crédit privé à l’échelle mondiale. Pour obtenir plus de renseignements sur la Caisse, visitez le site cdpq.com, suivez-nous sur Twitter @LaCDPQ ou consultez nos pages Facebook ou LinkedIn.

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FPE Capital announces the successful sale of leading UK human capital management SaaS investment Kallidus achieving 3.0x MoC and 31% IRR

FPE Capital

FPE Capital (“FPE”) is pleased to announce its successful sale of Kallidus Holdings Limited (“Kallidus”), a leading human capital management and e-learning software as a service (SaaS) provider. The buyout of Kallidus will generate a 3.0x MoC and 31% IRR return for FPE funds, which in combination with funding for a subsequent bolt on achieves a blended return of 2.7x MoC and 34% IRR over the four-year investment period.

Headquartered in Cirencester, UK, Kallidus has grown rapidly in the period under FPE’s ownership, which included the bolt on acquisition of Advorto, a SaaS recruitment provider, in September 2017. Kallidus is being acquired by Apse Capital, which has strong knowledge of the sector, its Partners having previously invested in Seagull, a maritime e-learning and technology platform.

FPE Capital, which completed the raise of a new £101m fund in October 2017, partners with high growth UK-headquartered technology-enabled SMEs, including those in the software and human capital management space. It invested in Kallidus in April 2015 to fund further organic growth of the core business and subsequently backed the acquisition of Advorto to take the business into the recruitment sector. During FPE’s ownership, Kallidus invested heavily in its SaaS platform and successfully migrated the entire business and customer base to a full multi-tenant solution. FPE’s investment has also enabled Kallidus to deliver significant operational and sales process efficiencies to maximise top line revenue growth.

Henry Sallitt and Henry Ropner led the investment for FPE and were non-executive directors of Kallidus through-out the period.

Henry Sallitt, Managing Partner at FPE commented:

“It has been fantastic to see Kallidus grow and to be part of its development as it benefits from its major investment into the core software platform and expanded product offering. We would like to congratulate the team on their significant achievements in the past few years during our partnership with them, and to wish them continued growth and success.”

Rob Caul, CEO at Kallidus said:

“We are delighted with the support FPE has given us, helping us grow organically and through acquisition. Kallidus is at an exciting stage of its growth story and we believe we will benefit from Apse Capital’s expertise and support in our next stage of growth.”

Tim Green, Managing Partner of Apse Capital said:

“The successful completion of our investment in Kallidus marks an exciting phase in its development as we support the Company during the next stage of its growth. We look forward to working with Rob and the rest of the management team to continue to deliver world class human capital management and e-learning solutions.”

Houlihan Lokey served as financial advisor, Charles Russell Speechlys LLP as legal advisor, RSM as financial due diligence advisor and CIL as commercial advisor to Kallidus. Capital Law and Momentum Corporate Finance advised the management team.

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Axon ICT I Fund is fully divested in seven years

Axon

14th march. Axon Partners Group successfully exited the last company in the portfolio of its ICT I Fund, marking the conclusion of the fund’s lifecycle.The fund achieved a strong overall annual return of 65% and a multiple of 3.5 times on invested capital. This performance positions Axon’s ICT I in the top quartile of the 2011 vintage funds in Europe. Companies such as Wuaki, Nice People at Work or Akamon were part of the portfolio and proved to be great examples of Spanish start-up success stories, each achieving exit valuations of over € 20m.

ICT I was primarily focused on investing in seed and early stage companies within the digital sector in Spain. A remarkably low average holding period of 3.4 years allowed the Fund to be fully divested in under 7 years. On top of that, the Fund had an unusual write-off ratio of 0%.

Both the low holding period and the 0% write-off ratio highly differ from what is normally observed in the early stage VC industry and are a clear proof of the current opportunity and maturity of the European VC market.

“When looking at the overall VC industry, it is usual to observe that the average loss ratio of early-stage funds stands at around 40-50%, and that holding periods are typically longer. Axon’s performance clearly breaks this stereotype. Through our Fund-of-Funds strategy, we have gained a deep insight into the European VC market, and we definitely see that the overall performance is improving. ICT I is certainly a top quartile performer not only at European, but also at global level” said Francisco Velázquez, President of Axon Partners Group.

“At Axon, we have a very rigorous selection process and deep level of involvement with our portfolio companies. This allows us to support and accelerate their growth while being able to detect and correct any deviation from the business plan. Our investment philosophy is not focused on the search for “unicorns”, but for companies backed by strong teams and disruptive, non-capital intensive business models”, remarked Alfonso de León, CEO of Axon Partners Group.

Axon Partners Group is an Alternative Asset Manager, with more than 12 years of track record investing in the technological sector. Currently, the firm has more than € 250m AUM across 3 funds in Europe, one in Latin America and another in India. In 2018, Axon launched Aurora Fund-of-Funds, which is the first FoF with an exclusive focus on the Pan-European tech opportunity.

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MOBILEXPENSE strengthens international footprint by acquiring the Swedish market leader in travel expense management

Fortino Capital

MobileXpense, the Brussels-based company that provides worldwide mobile solutions for travel expense management, is making its first strategic acquisition in taking over eBuilder Travel, the travel and expense management market leader in Sweden. This further strengthens MobileXpense’s position as a key international software supplier. In 2017, Fortino Capital Partners invested 20 million euros in the company’s commercial growth and the development of new mobile services.

Pieter Geeraerts, CEO, clarifies MobileXpense’s ambition: “MobileXpense has shown substantial and consistent growth in recent years. This acquisition allows us to further heighten our position in the international market where we have become a leading European player able to challenge the world’s largest software suppliers. We want to maintain this pioneering position and develop solutions that are able to follow the most complex processes of large multinational corporate and governmental organizations.”

MobileXpense was founded in 2000 as one of the first European Software-as-a-Service (Saas) companies. It specializes in software applications for travel and expense management and offers complete automation of the entire process from planning and booking, to reimbursement and accounting. MobileXpense has become a front-row service provider for multinationals in Europe, the UK, the US, Latin America and China.

This success is due to the solution’s user-friendliness, flexible integration with existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and payroll solutions, and particularly its compliance with local tax regulations and procedures in more than 70 countries. MobileXpense currently has 1.2 million users worldwide, spread over 100+ countries and almost 300 corporate customers including blue-chip companies such as Canon, UCB, DB Schenker or Panalpina but also the Belgian National Bank and the Dutch government.

In 2018, Pieter Geeraerts joined MobileXpense as its new CEO, bringing along his strong track record in growing software companies. Today, MobileXpense reaches another important milestone with the acquisition of eBuilder Travel, a strong player in travel and expense management in the Nordics. With this acquisition, MobileXpense obtains a solid set of large customers in Sweden and Finland backed by a strong team of local experts and aims to further expand its activities in the Nordics and strengthen its international offering.

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Servelec announces sale of Servelec Technologies to Laurel Solutions

Montagu

London | 14 March 2019

Servelec confirms the sale of its subsidiary Servelec Technologies, a market-leading provider of remote monitoring systems, secure SCADA systems, and business optimization software, to Laurel Solutions, a holding company which works with leading businesses to grow the smart use and development of industrial technology.

Servelec
Servelec, a leading software provider to the NHS and local government for over 20 years, will now focus on the healthcare, social care and children’s services markets. With a strategy to support the provision of Digital Care, Servelec’s software helps NHS trusts to deliver against the NHS 10 year plan for digital maturity and supports local authority social work, youth services and education practitioners in accessing the right information at the right time to deliver improved outcomes.

Neville Davis, Chairman of Servelec commented; “We are pleased to confirm the sale of Servelec Technologies. The company has a strong strategy in place to further develop the business and we wish David Frost, Managing Director of Servelec Technologies, and the team every success for the future.

“Servelec is now wholly focussed on our core public sector markets of NHS and local government. As these markets continue to integrate and share data to deliver improved care, we are working very closely with our customers to provide what they need for a joined-up future. Digital Care is at the heart of what we do; we are certain that this will enable the sectors we address to provide higher quality service in a more cost-effective manner.”

Servelec Technologies
“Servelec Technologies is a leading, global provider of connected remote monitoring and control solutions, helping clients and industries to realise their digital futures. The business is a leader in the UK and other water and wastewater markets, and a major player internationally in sectors including energy, transport and infrastructure. This investment further builds out our leading portfolio in remote asset monitoring and control.” said Martin Carter, CEO of Laurel Solutions. “We are excited to partner with Servelec Technologies’ highly talented management team, and plan significant investment in innovative products and solutions that will enhance their already outstanding offering.”

“We’re thrilled to have the backing of Laurel Solutions as we start a new chapter as a standalone business,” said David Frost, Managing Director at Servelec Technologies. “They bring not only the technical knowledge, but the business operations experience and capital resources that will be instrumental in our success and future growth.”

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CXA Group Raises US$25 Million to Accelerate Expansion Across Asia-Pacific

Heritas

New investors HSBC, Singtel Innov8, Telkom Indonesia MDI Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Muang Thai Fuchsia Ventures, Humanica, Heritas Venture Fund and others join CXA’s latest financing round

This strategic capital will accelerate CXA’s growth momentum in the Asia-Pacific region and reinforce the company’s mission of improving the health and wellness of individuals through its employer-driven population health platform

CXA Group, Asia’s one-stop, predictive and data intelligence platform for better health, wealth and wellness choices, announced today that it has raised US$25 million in its latest round of funding. CXA’s new group of strategic investors include HSBC, Singtel Innov8, Telkom Indonesia MDI Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Muang Thai Fuchsia Ventures, Humanica and Heritas Venture Fund, underscoring the company’s aim to be the leading health ecosystem platform addressing escalating healthcare costs across the region.

The investment by these leading global financial services institutions, telecommunications providers and payroll companies reflect their belief in CXA’s long-term growth opportunity, and the company’s unique ability to shift healthcare spend from treatment to prevention, without employers spending more.

Rosaline Chow Koo, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CXA Group said: “We are honoured to welcome these top-tier corporations into our roster of strategic investors and partners. CXA is today the leading health ecosystem platform that enables individuals across Asia to make better choices for healthier living, starting from the workplace, thereby empowering a shift in spend from treatment to prevention. We have seen overwhelming interest from global strategic investors who are excited to work with us to advance our business and vision.”

“These latest investors will become strategic partners, and we will look to closely collaborate in designing customised platform-led solutions for their B2B enterprise customers, and as importantly, the employees of these enterprises,” said Koo.

With chronic diseases hitting people in Asia earlier than in the West and healthcare costs escalating1, the company found that the antiquated pen-and-paper, one-size-fits-all approach to managing these costs was systemically wrong. This situation, if left unaddressed, would only get worse and become economically unsustainable over time.

The company has pioneered a one-stop, self-service platform that allows employers to give their employees access to an ever-widening range of health, wealth and wellness offerings, personalised based on the individual’s health and life-stage data. Employees can purchase offerings by drawing down on existing insurance policies provided by their employers and using funds that are then released into the platform’s eWallet to make transactions cashless, fast and easy.

Through the aggregation, anonymisation and analysis of digitised health and life-stage data, CXA helps employers get to the root cause of their workforces’ health issues and design specific interventions – such as corporate wellness and disease management initiatives – that will have the greatest impact on cost and health improvement, for reductions in tomorrow’s chronic disease and healthcare spend, today.

Headquartered in Singapore, CXA achieved revenue growth of 65 percent in 2018 and is expected to double that in 2019. This latest funding round follows US$33 million in total funding from Series A and B in 2015 and 2017 respectively. Other investors in CXA include B Capital Group, Openspace Ventures, Government-linked strategic investor EDBI, BioVeda Capital, FengHe Asia, Philips and RGAx.

Supporting Quotes from New Investors:

Edgar Hardless, Chief Executive Officer of Singtel Innov8 said, “CXA’s innovative use of analytics helps its enterprise clients effectively manage their healthcare costs and promote their employees’ wellbeing. We are excited to be an investor in CXA and help with their expansion across Asia.”

“CXA is rapidly emerging as a leader in the Health and Insurtech space. It has an innovative platform-led approach to helping companies optimise their health spend through personalised engagement with employees about their physical and financial wellness. We are excited about this investment partnership and the disruptive opportunities it presents,” said Bryce Johns, Group Head of Insurance, HSBC.

“Heritas invests in high-growth companies that are tackling major healthcare challenges faced by Asian populations,” said Chik Wai Chiew, Executive Director and CEO, Heritas Capital Management. “We are pleased to support CXA in this financing round to scale its employer-driven population health platform, as the company continues to pioneer solutions that connect the whole healthcare continuum and shift employers’ healthcare spend from treatment to prevention.”

Supporting Quotes from Previous Investors:

“Strategic investment in CXA from HSBC, Singtel Innov8 and others reinforces our belief in technology enablement and value creation from high-growth companies partnering with larger organisations and transforming in collaborative fashion. With the collective support of banks, insurers, telcos and payroll companies as co-investors, CXA can now accelerate its expansion into new markets and bancassurance channels, while creating new revenue opportunities for these partners’ businesses,” said Eduardo Saverin, Co-Founder and Partner, B Capital Group, the lead investor in CXA’s previous Series B funding round.

About CXA Group:

CXA Group is Asia’s one-stop, predictive and data intelligence platform for better health, wealth and wellness choices. Through the CXA platform, employers can empower employees with access to personalised health and lifestyle offerings, with clear and quantifiable ROI for the business. Founded in 2013 with the mission of transforming the delivery of employee benefits from pen-and-paper and one-size-fits-all to a digitised and personalised platform, the company aims to shift healthcare spend from treatment to prevention, to improve workplace population health.

Driven by a team of industry veterans with extensive leadership experience across Asia’s human resource, insurance, finance, healthcare and technology industries, CXA serves more than 600 enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies, and more than 400,000 employees in 20 countries. CXA has received recognition as InsurTech of the Year from the Asia Insurance Industry Awards and was among the top three most impactful innovations at the Singapore Digital Techblazer Awards.

New brand launches next generation payment solutions

ik-investment-partners

The well-known Nordic brands OpenSolution (Sw), KDR (No) and Finnpos (Fi) have joined forces under the new brand OPEN. “We wanted a brand that reflects our value proposition – delivering innovative and customized payment solutions, helping our customers to plan, perform and grow their businesses,” says CEO Mikael Hedlöf.

OPEN covers the entire value chain of payment solutions, making it a single point of contact for >13,000 customers throughout the Nordics and Baltics with 18,000 systems installed. In conjunction with the rebranding, OPEN will also launch the next generation of Point of Sale (POS) solutions to restaurants, convenience stores and the cruise ship segment.

“We know that an innovative payment solution can increase a company’s revenue by up to 30% as well as improve employee wellbeing in the workplace. With this in mind, we reinvented our POS experience to better suit the fast-paced business environment. We are proud to say that OPEN’s system is the market’s most complete cash register system with everything from hardware, payment solutions, reporting tools, integrations and support,” commented Mikael Hedlöf, CEO of OPEN.

Restaurant chain ‘The Barn’ is one of the clients who has tested OPEN’s new POS system.

“Having tested OPEN’s new POS offering, we are thoroughly impressed by its functionality and innovative features.  Our collaboration with OPEN helps us grow as a company,” said Marcus Martinsson, CEO at The Barn.

For more information, please contact:
Mikael Hedlöf, CEO
mikael.hedlof@openpos.tech
+46 (0)70-283 76 28

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Semantix acquires translation provider Teknotrans

Segula

Through the acquisition of Teknotrans AB, Semantix continues its acquisition drive, strengthening its offering in the global market and consolidating its position as the Nordic language technology leader.

– Teknotrans’ business structure and customer base offer us great opportunities to strengthen Semantix’ offering in the global market. They also have a long history of delivering high-quality translations with a strong footprint in the automotive and industrial sector, which makes the acquisition interesting for us. The acquisition further consolidates Semantix’ role as the Nordic leader in language technology and multilingual services, says Patrik Attemark, Group CEO of Semantix.

Teknotrans was founded in 1971 and has offices in Gothenburg, Sweden, and in Split, Croatia. The company is fully owned by CEO, Christian Hammer.

– The acquisition comes at a perfect time for us to give Teknotrans a platform for continued growth, ensuring our customers access to broader and more complete language technology offerings, which is something Semantix will enable, says Christian Hammer, CEO of Teknotrans.

 

For more information please contact:
Patrik Attemark, Group CEO, patrik.attemark@semantix.se, +46 8 506 225 50

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CycloMedia Acquires Floating Point FX to Fuel US and International Growth

Volpi Capital

Acquisition Strengthens CycloMedia’s US Presence, Enhances Data Analytics Capabilities

Zaltbommel, Netherlands: 7 March 2019 – CycloMedia, the leading provider of accurate geospatial imagery-data and data analytics, announced today that it has acquired Floating Point FX, a 3D geospatial modelling company based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Floating Point FX (FPFX) provides powerful data visualisation and analytic platforms as a service within multiple geospatial industries. Utilising mobile LiDAR and imaging techniques, Floating Point FX produces highly detailed 3D visualisations of street-level environments. The company has been successfully delivering highly accurate data analytics solutions within the transportation, utilities & communications and public works markets. Increasingly, these workflow-enhancing solutions have been derived from CycloMedia’s highly accurate 3D imagery and LiDAR data.

Together, CycloMedia and Floating Point FX provide a wide range of imagery data analytics services, including LiDAR scanning, 3D modeling and 3D real-time scene capture, offering organisations complete solutions for their visualisation, design and analysis needs.

The acquisition allows CycloMedia to rapidly grow its presence in North America and to provide highly accurate data sets and street-level imagery across a wide variety of government and commercial markets. The deal will also enable future expansion into additional customer markets globally.

CycloMedia and Floating Point FX’s customers will benefit from the combined offering, which seamlessly delivers an accurate digital representation of the outside world to allow them to assess, analyse and measure physical infrastructures remotely.

“This is a strategic acquisition for CycloMedia that strengthens our team, builds our resources and expands our offering to accelerate our growth. Bolstering our US presence is an essential part of CycloMedia’s growth strategy worldwide,” said Joe Astroth, CEO US of CycloMedia.

“As the external world becomes increasingly complex, the integration of our two companies’ data and data analytics capabilities will help us meet our joint customers’ growing demand for a highly accurate, real-time digital representation of their environments. As part of this acquisition, we are exploring options to also introduce Floating Point’s technology in Europe.” said Frank Pauli, CEO of CycloMedia.

The deal follows significant equity investment in CycloMedia in August 2018 by Volpi Capital, a specialist European lower mid-market private equity firm. The Floating Point FX acquisition is part of CycloMedia’s data analytics investment strategy announced last year.

Crevan O’Grady from Volpi Capital added: “This is a landmark deal for CycloMedia. The addition of Floating Point FX gives CycloMedia an excellent platform in North America from which to capture the significant market opportunities, whilst also building upon its US success to date. This is also a proof of concept for the international buy and build strategy that Volpi and CycloMedia’s management have jointly set out in order to expand and grow the business over the medium term.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

About CycloMedia

Founded in 1980, CycloMedia is the leading international provider of data and software solutions visualising the outside world accurately on-screen. CycloMedia’s customers derive actionable insights from the geodata platform to power day-to-day decisions remotely and with more accuracy, delivering exceptional ROI. CycloMedia focuses its solutions on tax assessment, asset management, public safety, construction & engineering, utility & transportation and insurance & real estate. CycloMedia employs 200 people and is based in Zaltbommel, the Netherlands, with operations in the US, Germany, and Scandinavia. For more information, please visit www.cyclomedia.com.

About Volpi Capital

Volpi Capital is a specialist European lower mid-market private equity firm. Volpi has a thesis-driven approach targeting ambitious businesses using enabling technologies to disrupt traditional B2B value chains. Volpi typically invests €25-75 million of equity in businesses with enterprise values between €50 million and €200 million and seeks to drive trans-formative growth through international expansion and consolidation. The firm, which was founded in 2016 by Crevan O’Grady and Marco Sodi, closed its first fund (Volpi Capital Fund I) in April 2018 with commitments of €185 million.

http://www.volpicapital.com

For all media enquiries, please contact:

Instinctif Partners

Ross Gillam/Justine Crestois

+44 20 7457 2020

volpi@instinctif.com

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Bluebee receives Health Data Hosting (HDS) accreditation

Rijswijk, The Netherlands: 6 March 2019 – Bluebee, a global bioinformatics solutions provider, has been awarded the HDS:2018 certification for its Information Security Management System (ISMS). The Hébergeurs de Données de Santé or Health Data Hosting (HDS) accreditation is required for entities hosting personal health data governed by French laws. The British Standards Institution (BSI) conducted the audit and confirmed Bluebee’s compliance with all requirements and controls defined by the French Agency, Agence des Systèmes d’Information Partagés de Santé (ASIP).

Bluebee’s ISMS governs HDS outsourcer host activities, including development, management, support and maintenance of cloud infrastructure and cloud-based information systems that process large volumes of omics and health data. The achievement of this accreditation reaffirms Bluebee’s continued commitment to providing the most secure and reliable data management solutions to clinical laboratories, diagnostic assay manufacturers and population genomics initiatives.