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7 questions to a start-up: Apiax

by NS Partners

Fusion – the Swiss FinTech business accelerator – exists to shape innovation in financial services by combining up-and-coming tech talent with Swiss state-of-the-art financial know-how. As a Fusion member, Notz Stucki is actively involved in the process.

 Follow our series “7 questions to a start-up” to get a feeling of who are the participants of the accelerator Season 4!

 

7 questions to Apiax

1/ Who are you? 

Apiax - Ralf Huber
Apiax – Ralf Huber

I am Ralf Huber, co-founder of Apiax. I have over 16 years of legal and compliance experience in the financial industry. And I have always been passionate about standardization and the use of technology to simplify the demands of modern legal and compliance work, which obviously played an important role in why I co-founded a RegTech startup.

2/ What does your company do?

We build the most powerful tools to master complex financial regulations digitally. We give financial institutions access to machine-readable rules on the most pressing regulatory questions and allow them to customize, manage and deploy these rules effortlessly. Our cutting-edge technology provides full transparency and control over rules in action and empowers financial institutions to serve their clients more efficiently than ever before.

Our clients use our solutions in different processes. One example of how our software can be embedded into a client’s value chain is an automated pre-trade check. In this case, all trades executed on an advisory basis are checked for necessary parameters such as suitability, AML or cross-border regulations.

The digital rules we offer can also be used separately via an intuitive app to give relationship managers the ability to query our platform solution around the clock when questions or uncertainties arise about compliance questions.

3/ What’s the founding story behind Apiax?

I met my co-founders in 2016 through mutual friends and we immediately recognized our shared passion. From very different perspectives – compliance, technology, and product – we wanted to tackle the same question: how can compliance be mastered in the 21st century?

4/ What was your proudest moment in your company’s history so far?

There are many of them. One of the most recent highlights in our company’s history is certainly winning the Swiss Fintech Awards 2019. It was very satisfying and rewarding to be recognized for our continuous efforts over the past years, especially given the very high profile of the award.

5/ What’s the vision behind Apiax?

Our vision is quite bold. Essentially, we want everyone to have easy access to reliable answers to legal questions, worldwide. For the moment, we focus on financial institutions. We want to make compliance lean, easy and efficient again. Everyone that works in a bank, a wealth manager or an asset manager should always know exactly what they are allowed to do – and what not.

6/ What’s your biggest challenge right now?

A major challenge for us is the careful management of time and resources. Efficiency and effectiveness are crucial to doing the right thing as well as doing things right.

7/ Is there any inspirational saying or words of encouragement you want to share with other creative/disruptive professionals?

Everyone who works in the FinTech or RegTech space knows how important it is to be persistent. A quote that fits well here is certainly this one: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Photos & Text: Ralf Huber

Apiax Team
Apiax Team
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Antonio Mira
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Antonio Mira joined NS Partners in 2006 as Group Chief Financial Officer. He heads the corporate functions and is involved in coordinating and implementing the decisions of the Executive Committee.
An experienced bank auditor, Antonio started his career in 1995 with Arthur Andersen, where he worked for some 7 years before joining Ernst & Young in 2002 as a Senior Manager.
Antonio is a Swiss chartered accountant and a Business graduate of Lausanne University (HEC).

Sébastien Poiret
DEPUTY HEAD OF WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Sébastien Poiret joined NS Partners in 2008 and manages funds of hedge funds and private client mandates. He also oversees the development of the Group’s offices in Mauritius.

Prior to joining NS Partners, he served as a Trader, Head of Manager research and Portfolio Manager in the USA and Switzerland for a single hedge fund (1998-2004) and for Optimal (2004-2008), Grupo Santander’s fund-of-hedge funds operations.

Sébastien holds a Bachelor’s degree in Corporate Finance from the ESPEME Business School (EDHEC Group) and an MBA in Finance and Economics from the Institute of Business Administration, both in Nice.

Abir Oreibi
BOARD DIRECTOR

Abir Oreibi joined the Board of the NS Partners Group in 2018, where she brings her truly international perspective and rich experience.
Among many other ventures, Abir set up Alibaba.com’s first European office. After living and working in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok and London, she now lives in Geneva, where she is CEO of Lift Events, an organization that identifies technology trends, their business and social impact through the organization of events and open innovation programs. Issues related to the challenges and opportunities created by new technologies as well as the strategic responses from organizations are at the heart of Lift’s activities.
Abir holds a BA in Political Sciences from the University of Geneva. She is an investor, and member of advisory and innovation boards.

Romain Pidoux, CAIA

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Romain Pidoux joined NS Partners in 2011 and heads the Group’s Risk Management.
He started his financial career in 2005 as Head of Quantitative Analysis for a Swiss Family Office, selecting funds and managing portfolio allocation. In 2008, he switched to the alternative world and joined Peak Partners as hedge funds analyst.
He is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) and holds a Master’s degree in international relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies at Geneva University.

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