WCKD RZR, the pioneering start-up whose software eradicates a myriad of international data privacy, management and cost issues for multi-national businesses, has raised US$1.2m (GPB£920,000) from angel investors.
WCKD RZR is a ground-breaking ‘Data Enablement’ software company founded by HSBC’s former Chief Administration Officer, Chuck Teixeira.
Teixeira’s London-based company is solving a painful data headache for global businesses today – one which the Canadian founder faced when he was HSBC’s Head of Transformation for Global Banking and Markets.
After a global search, Teixeira discovered there was no automation tool which allowed a multi-national bank, for instance, to use machine learning to catalogue its cloud-based data while ensuring all regulatory requirements and access controls were met.
Businesses often face a range of problems caused by conflicting data governance policies and authorisation controls in different locations and jurisdictions. If a business wants to fix its messy data estate by moving to a single cloud or database management system, it usually costs millions of dollars to do so. Then data is often not labelled or can’t be found and is subject to different regulations.
WCKD RZR’s Data Enablement software, Data Watchdog, unlocks the potential of the multi-national corporations’ data by allowing them to Find, Govern and Access their data in each country, real time, fully compliant with relevant data sharing, privacy and governance rules.
Chuck Teixeira, founder and CEO of WCKD RZR, said: “Our mission is to enable large organisations to access all their data around the world wherever and whenever they want, fully compliant with the mountains of conflicting global rules.
“WCKD RZR’s Data Watchdog software is true data enablement. It allows multi-national organisations that have disparate and messy data estates to unlock the potential of their data immediately, without having to wait for large, expensive data transformation programs that cost them tens of millions of dollars and many years.”
The software is easily installed onto an organisation’s network allowing the data to remain where it was, and begins work in minutes. It spiders and maps all the company’s databases, with proprietary machine learning technology auto-labelling the data so that it can be easily accessed.
Prior to HSBC, Teixeira held several high-profile banking roles. He was Global COO of the Client Capital Management division at Barclays and CAO for Equities EMEA at Nomura.
He added: “We have a built a talented team, many of whom have a background in financial services and who fully understand the complexities of financial regulation.”
WCKD RZR was shortlisted for FinTech Startup of the Year at the 2021 FSTech Awards.
The angel investment round will fund key hires and expansion.