Dutch Fintech Hyarchis has brought new investors on board to accelerate its planned growth. As of 1 November, Hyarchis is owned by six successful software entrepreneurs who will further expand the product suite and aim to grow internationally.
Hyarchis was founded in 1985 by Andre van der Doelen and has made a name for itself as a provider of document management solutions within the financial services sector. The company serves this sector across the board, from major banks to accountants and from mortgage lenders to pension funds. It does this not only in the Netherlands, but also in Belgium and Germany.
In recent years, under the leadership of Adriaan Hoogduijn, the new CEO, Hyarchis has undergone a radical transformation in which it has changed from a traditional software company into an international Fintech that is pioneering artificial intelligence. The company’s solutions are running at some of the largest financial institutions in the Netherlands and support them in the area of regulatory compliance. Hyarchis operates not only from the Netherlands, but also has an office in Lithuania where a team of just over thirty professionals has been built up in a short period of time.
With the new investors on board, Hyarchis wants to expand the existing product suite at an accelerated pace in order to grow internationally. A spearhead of this internationalization is the increasing European regulatory pressure in the area of regulatory compliance. Legislation such as the Wwft and GDPR are increasingly being harmonized at the European level and Hyarchis offers a unique series of solutions that help financial service providers to make their document flows compliant with the use of artificial intelligence. This is not only relevant for banks preparing for the arrival of Basel IV or pension funds getting ready for the new pension agreement, but also for accountants and mortgage lenders who, as gatekeepers of the financial system, have an increasingly important role in combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
The investors behind Hyarchis are a group of successful software entrepreneurs consisting of Chris Ouwinga, Ruud van der Kruk, Ynze Sipkema and Jelke Jansen. Chris Ouwinga is known as the founder and CEO of Unit4. Under his leadership, Unit4 was active in 36 countries, had 4,000 employees and realized a turnover of more than half a billion per year. Ruud, Ynze and Jelke are the founders of Fiscaal Gemak where they created a new digital standard for tax returns for accountants and tax advisors. Fiscaal Gemak is used by more than 3,500 accountancy and tax consultancy firms in the Netherlands, making it the undisputed market leader in this sector. With these investors, Hyarchis is not only getting growth capital, but also the knowledge and experience needed for the new growth phase of the company.
Together, the investors have a majority stake in Hyarchis and Chris Ouwinga says the following about the investment: “Regulatory compliance pressures are becoming increasingly heavy on both financial institutions and accounting firms. Hyarchis is making a significant difference in this with the help of artificial intelligence and I am impressed with the innovative ability of the current management. This is especially true of the leading companies that are getting their compliance in check using Hyarchis’ solutions. I see opportunities for Hyarchis to become a major player internationally and I am particularly happy to help them realize these ambitions.”
Ruud van der Kruk adds: “It is incredible what Hyarchis has achieved in recent years. It is a state-of-the-art company that offers a unique proposition in the Dutch market with the combination of document management and artificial intelligence. We see a lot of potential here, especially in the accountancy market. Hyarchis currently serves more than 350 accountancy firms and we expect this market share to grow rapidly to the level of Fiscaal Gemak in the coming years. We see a great need for an off-the-shelf solution for compliance issues and Hyarchis can take accountancy firms to the next level with this.”
Andre van der Doelen, the founder of Hyarchis, hands over his role as CEO to Adriaan Hoogduijn while remaining involved as a strategic advisor with a substantial minority stake. Adriaan Hoogduijn, in addition to his new role as CEO, is also stepping in as a co-investor: “In a short period of time we have created a completely renewed Hyarchis with a great team. With the new investors we want to accelerate the current growth curve, explicitly continuing on the path we have taken. With our new solutions we have achieved high levels of trust among our customers and we serve some of the finest financial institutions in the country. We are moving forward with this at an accelerated pace and with such a strong team of tech entrepreneurs, I see the future of our company with great confidence.”
