Capital Markets & Trading | Montreal, QC | Founded: 2012 | Employees: 33 | www.ticksmith.com
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Last updated December 10, 2018 | To download a PDF version, click here.
Company Overview
TickSmith provides a big data platform for financial institutions. The platform, called TickVault, enables the analysis of massive dataset aimed at extracting insights and valuable content. TickSmith was founded in 2012 by Francis Wenzel, David Cote, Marc-Andrè Hetu, and Tony Bussieres, who still represent the senior management of the company. TickSmith is headquartered in Montreal (QC).
Senior Management
Francis Wenzel: CEO & Co-Founder (2012-Present). Previously: VP Product Management & Vendor Relations, SunGard (1999-2011); VP Marketing and Product Management, Exchange Market Systems E.M.S. Inc. (1994-1999), VP Marketing, Mux Lab (1991,1994), President & Co-Founder, Les Logiciels Kaiser (1985-1991), VP Sales & Marketing, Exchange Market Systems E.M.S. Inc. (1989-1991). Education: Universitè du Quebec a Montreal, Business.
David Cote: COO & Co-Founder (2012-Present). Previously: IT Architect Consultant, Desjardins (2011-2012); Integration Architect Consultant, Transat (2011-2011); IT Architect Consultant (2010-2011); Infrastructure Architect Consultant, IBM (2009-2010); IT Architect Consultant, SunGard (2009-2009); Operational Architect Consultant, National Bank of Canada (2008-2008), Infrastructure Architect Consultant, IBM (2006-2008), Integration Architect, Transat (2005-2006), Information Systems Architect, SunGard (1999-2005). Education: Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (1996-1999).
Marc-Andrè Hétu: CTO & Co-Founder (2012-Present). Previously: IT Strategic Consultant, Industrial Alliance Securities (2013-Present); Manager – Web Business Strategies, Desjardings Securities (2012-2012); Manager _ IT Development and Online Brokerage, Desjardins Securities (2009-2010); Manager – Internet, operations and development, Desjardins Securities (2006-2008); IT Project Manager, Desjardins Securities (2004,2006); VP Development, SunGard (2000-2003); Software Development Manager, Exchange Market Systems E.M.S. Inc. (1992-2000). Education: B.ing, Computer Software, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal (1986-1991).
Tony Bussieres: Senior VP Development & Co-Founder (2012-Present). Previously: Software Architect, Groupe Technologies Desjardins (2007-2012); Senior Software Developer - Consultant, Aubesoft (2006-2007); Java Developer, Compuware (2004-2005); Software Developer, Financiere Banque Nationale (2002-2004); Netcorps participant, Canada World Youth (2001-2001); C Developer, Matrox (2001-2001), Python Developer, Sicomm (2000-2000). Education: B.A.Sc., Computer Science, Université Laval (2007-2012); Electrical Engineering, Université du Québec (2000-2002).
History
TickSmith was founded in 2012 by Francis Wenzel, David Cote, Marc-André Hètu, and Tony Bussieres. At the time the co-founders, who all share a tech background, were working on a huge dataset (370 Terabytes), and they had to figure out a way to extract valuable insights from such unstructured and messy data. They realized that this problem was common to all financial institutions; therefore, they decided to leverage the emerging big-data technology in order to come up with a product that would help financial institutions in managing the data in their possession.
Funding [1]
On July 2017 TickSmith raised CAD $2M from Illuminate Financial Management LLP. The leading partner was Mark Beeston. I was not able to retrieve information about how the company funded itself until this point.
[1] https://www.ticksmith.com/ticksmith-receives-strategic-investment-illuminate-financial
Key Corporate Developments [2]
2012: the four Co-Founders found TickSmith Inc.
2013: TickVault is launched
2014: National Bank of Canada becomes the first TickSmith’s client
2017: TickSmith raises CAD $2M from Illuminate Financial Management LLP
[2] https://www.ticksmith.com/ticksmith-turns-five-today
Business Highlights
Strategy
Ticksmith decided to market its product by selling the whole platform rather than using a platform-as-a-service business model. This enables the integration of the platform with the client’s current infrastructure.
Products/Pricing
- TickVault: it is a big data platform used for extracting insights and valuable content from massive chunk of financial data. The platform can be also used for recording, storing, and transforming a wide range of data types.
- Marketplace advanced analytics: launched in 2017, it makes use of the same TickVault’s technology to provide analyses on market performance and competitors’ behavior.
Technology
TickSmith’s TickVault is a big data platform. The platform makes use of two technologies in particular: Hadoop technology, which provide highly scalability and flexibility, and APIs, which make possible to extract different types of data from different sources.
Distribution/Logistics
TickSmith is headquartered in Montreal. According to the TickSmith’s website, they are also present in New York and London (UK). The capital recently raised by Illuminate Management LLP, a London-based VC, may indicate a future expansion in the British market.
Marketing
TickSmith provides a big data platform for financial institutions. In particular, they focus on three types of customers: Trading Groups, Exchanges & Data Vendors, and Regulators and SROs. Although they have different objectives, these three types of customers all share the need to manage massive data efficiently.
Competitors
- BlueData - (Santa Clara, CA) BlueData provides a big data platform for both financial and non-financial institutions. BlueData’s main product is based on the same Hadoop technology. However, BlueData uses a platform-as-a-service business model.
- ForwardLane - (New York, NY) ForwardLane provides an AI API platform for financial institutions that aggregates, organize, and synthesizes structured and unstructured data. It is presents in both New York and London (UK), where TickSmith is also operating.
Corporate Profile Created By: Marco Campolo, Ivey HBA2 2018