Compliance firm Exiger buys Canadian regtech startup OutsideIQ

By Solarina Ho TORONTO (Reuters) - Exiger, a firm that helps businesses monitor compliances such as money laundering regulations, has agreed to buy OutsideIQ, a Canadian startup that specializes in technology that helps businesses assess and manage risk. The deal, reported earlier by Reuters, is for C$30 million ($22.2 million), according to a person familiar with the agreement, and is one of the top 10 largest disclosed acquisitions of a venture-backed Canadian tech firm since 2014, according to Thomson Reuters data. New York-based Exiger, which has used OutsideIQ's cloud-based software since 2014, sells technology and services to help businesses comply with complex global regulations in areas such as money laundering and financial crimes. The deal is the largest to date by privately held Exiger. The company was formed to lead the court-appointed oversight of HSBC , which in 2012 admitted to allowing drug cartels to launder hundreds of millions of dollars. Toronto-based OutsideIQ, with 40 employees, uses cognitive computing processes to automate and analyze a significant portion of time-consuming, error-prone data research typically done by workers. The process of combing through millions of pieces of data is whittled down from days to minutes, the company says. Part of a growing crop of startups focused on regulatory technology, or "regtech," OutsideIQ's software is used by investment banks, insurance companies, SAP Ariba and others. (This story corrects 2nd paragraph to read "acquisitions of a venture-backed firm", not "by a venture-backed firm".) (Reporting by Solarina Ho; Editing by Jim Finkle, Richard Chang and Chris Reese)