Credit Suisse fintech fund invests in employee monitoring firm
Credit Suisse’s fintech fund has made a majority investment in Sapience Analytics, an Indian firm that helps firms monitor how employees use their computers and phones. Financial terms were not disclosed.
This, the firm says, helps more than 70 major firms boost efficiency in areas such as staffing, workload optimisation, process improvement, robotic process automation, and outsourcing governance.
The funding from Credit Suisse’s Next Investors will be used for a push into the US market.
Companies are increasingly turning to technology to help them monitor their employees’ work patterns. Earlier this month, it emerged that Barclays has installed devices with heat and motion sensors to track when staffers are at their desks.
Barclays insists that it is is using the devices to assess office space usage, not spy on workers, while Sapience has also stressed that its technology is not for “policing”. Credit Suisse has not said whether it will use the tech itself.
Greg Grimaldi, portfolio manager, Next Investors, who joins the Sapience board, says: “With operational efficiency and human capital productivity continuing to be a focus for the financial services industry, businesses need to be smarter in how they deploy resources and allocate workflow.
“Sapience Analytics helps solve a big pain point by empowering large institutions to efficiently manage human capital resources to help optimize work streams across an increasingly disparate workforce made up of permanent staff, third-party vendors, consultants, and contractors.”
