Financial Management
H.I.G | January 23, 2024
H.I.G. Capital (“H.I.G.”), a global alternative investment firm with $60 billion of capital under management, is pleased to announce that one of its affiliates has completed the acquisition of CHA Consulting, Inc. (“CHA” or the “Company”), a leading full-service engineering, design, consulting, and program management firm providing a range of technology-enabled services to public, private, and institutional clients. CHA’s existing management team, led by President Jim Stephenson, will continue to lead the Company and remain shareholders in the business. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1952 and headquartered in Albany, New York, CHA operates under three main sectors: infrastructure, power & manufacturing, and commercial & institutional. The Company serves clients across diversified end-markets including government, manufacturing, transportation, utility, water resources, commercial, and education. Through a combination of experienced and high-quality engineers, end-market expertise, and diverse capabilities, CHA provides industry-leading service to its blue-chip customer base.
Jim Stephenson, President & CEO of CHA Consulting and Holdings, Inc., commented, “H.I.G. brings tremendous financial and operational resources with a great track record supporting companies and delivering value. We are confident this partnership will further position CHA for continued growth and will provide opportunities to better support our clients and the markets we serve.”
“We are excited to partner with Jim and his exceptional management team. CHA provides critical engineering services through its talented team and is well-positioned for continued growth, capitalizing on accelerating investments in the end markets they serve across the United States and Canada. We look forward to supporting the team’s growth strategy and strategically broadening its operational scope across North America, both organically and through additional add-on acquisitions,” added Matt Hankins, Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital.
Houlihan Lokey, Inc. served as lead financial advisor with support from AEC Advisors, and Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP served as legal counsel for CHA. Harris Williams LLC served as financial advisor, and Ropes & Gray LLP served as legal counsel to H.I.G.
About CHA Consulting
CHA Consulting, Inc. is an innovative, full-service engineering, design, consulting, and program management firm providing a wide range of technology-enhanced services to public, private, and institutional clients. They are focused on delivering sustainable, integrated solutions to the world's most challenging infrastructure projects across utilities, transportation, water, and other critical commercial and industrial end-markets. CHA was ranked 69th largest engineering firm in the U.S. in 2023 by ENR, with approximately 1,800 employees and 50 offices throughout the U.S. and Canada.
About H.I.G. Capital
H.I.G. Capital is a leading global alternative investment firm with $60 billion of capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco in the United States, as well as international affiliate offices in Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Dubai, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/ value-added approach
H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche, and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets.
H.I.G. also manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance. H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.
H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector. Since its founding in 1993,
H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 400 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $53 billion.
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Financial Management
Synechron | February 02, 2024
Synechron, Inc., a leading global digital transformation consulting firm focused on financial services and technology organizations, announces the launch of its Synechron Nexus suite of nine Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions that are ready to be deployed within weeks. This array of generative AI-led solutions was designed to span the nexus between human expertise and AI, while enabling users to automate manually intensive tasks, increase project speed, drive operational efficiencies, and reduce costs across various key business tasks.
Each solution, divided among three value streams, allows Synechron clients to improve their operations, reduce friction in their processes and boost productivity.
Business Growth: Practical, innovative applications that enhance business capabilities
Synechron Amplifai is a GenAI-powered market research solution. Its automated research capability saves significant time in a wide range of use-cases, reducing the tedium of gathering, analyzing and reporting market news, trends and strategies.
Synechron Clarifai is a tool for summarizing and analyzing call-center transcripts. Conversations are flagged for non-compliance and further human review/actions.
Synechron Simplifai centralizes project portfolio data and metrics for streamlined executive decision-making, informing effortless, data-backed decisions for executive and steering committee groups.
Operational Efficiency: Advanced solutions to streamline processes and elevate internal operations
Synechron Nexus Chat is built on a conversational AI model, understands and engages in a comprehensive range of scenarios and supports plug-ins for real-time data and integration, while delivering human-like conversational responses and text, safely and securely.
Synechron Replai is an AI-driven, RFP and proposals tool, streamlining proposal creation with high-quality, insightful responses, with the ability to search the internal knowledge repository for fast access and content re-use.
Synechron Unifai is an AI-driven HR solution, designed to simplify interactions between company HR functions and employees, such as policy information and employee-specific payroll details.
Synechron Identifai collects comprehensive online market intelligence and provides an in-depth understanding of business, emerging technology trends, or any research topic.
Developer Productivity: Toolkit to optimize timelines, minimize costs, and automate practices across the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
Synechron Codifai is an SDLC productivity improvement tool, using automation in code generation, unit test case generation, legacy code migration, code optimizations, and automatic code documentation. It works closely with Synechron Verifai which addresses software testing aspects.
Synechron Verifai is a GenAI tool for SDLC productivity, using automation in code generation with a focus on QA test case generation, automated test script generation, synthetic test data generation, and bug detection and bug fixing. It works closely with Synechron Codifai which addresses software development efficiency.
This new Synechron Nexus AI suite of real-world, practical business solutions, combined with the five formalized RiskTech.AI Accelerators (launched in October 2023), leverages Synechron's AI Practice expertise globally. The creation of AI-led business solutions has been a passion of Synechron's for over a decade, and the firm's commitment to innovative excellence has won the firm eight prestigious AI industry awards to date.
Faisal Husain, Synechron's Co-founder and CEO, said of the launch of the Synechron Nexus AI Suite of solutions, "We are proud to be releasing this extensive array of AI-enhanced solutions that go beyond the hype, and provide significant, tangible benefits to business operations. AI and GenAI-rich tools are not just ideas we offer to our clients, but key process accelerators that we ourselves at Synechron are deploying across our company, as we offer ways to integrate the benefits of this technology with human expertise."
Ryan Cox, Co-head of Synechron's AI Practice in the UK, added, "Our team has developed, tested, and successfully integrated these advanced AI solutions. Our approach is to strategically guide our clients to integrate AI effectively within their business processes. We identify the key areas where AI can bring the most impact, aligning our solutions to their unique business needs. This targeted approach ensures significant value creation with maximum benefit."
Prabhakar Srinivasan, Co-head of Synechron's AI Practice in Bangalore, India, commented, "Artificial Intelligence has proven to be a wonderful force for driving business enhancements by quickly synthesizing extraordinarily large data sets. The Large Language Models used learn over short span of time on how to optimize each firm's proprietary information, thereby boosting productivity and allowing businesses to realize time and cost savings as they optimize tasks."
About Synechron
At Synechron, we believe in the power of digital to transform businesses for the better. Our global consulting firm combines creativity and innovative technology to deliver industry-leading digital solutions. Synechron's progressive technologies and optimization strategies span end-to-end Artificial Intelligence, Consulting, Digital, Cloud & DevOps, Data, and Software Engineering, servicing an array of noteworthy financial services and technology firms. Through research and development initiatives in our FinLabs we develop solutions for modernization, from Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain to Data Science models, Digital Underwriting, mobile-first applications and more. Over the last 20+ years, our company has been honored with multiple employer awards, recognizing our commitment to our talented teams. With top clients to boast about, Synechron has a global workforce of 15,000+, and has 48 offices in 19 countries within key global markets.
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Fintech
VoPay | January 11, 2024
VoPay, a leading provider of embedded financial technology solutions, has launched VoPay Verify, an Instant Bank Account Verification solution via microtransactions - pioneering the first-of-its-kind service in Canada and the United States. Recognizing the escalating adoption of bank account payments as a credit card and paper cheque alternative, the demand for a steadfast bank account verification method has become imperative for businesses. VoPay’s innovative solution empowers enterprises to rapidly authenticate and confirm any US or Canadian bank account, eliminating the protracted waiting times of up to 24 hours or more for micro-transactions to finalize.
Micro-transactions, a stalwart tool for confirming bank account ownership over the years, entail crediting or debiting a nominal amount into the account. They offer several advantages for businesses, encompassing heightened security, improved user experience, regulatory compliance, and reduced chargebacks. However, the current process is notoriously slow and disruptive to users' experience, with transactions typically spanning at least a day to complete. By leveraging VoPay's real-time transaction capabilities, companies will reduce the risk of reversals, NSFs, and transaction failures, ultimately improving their bottom line. VoPay Verify offers a fully managed account verification experience by providing a pre-built user experience and intellectual logic that determines the transaction amount considering many different risk criteria.
“This initiative gives our clients an out-of-the-box method for account verification. It means that they don't have to stitch together a solution and can utilize an optimized set of endpoints for micro-transaction verification,” says Hamed Arbabi, VoPay Founder & CEO. “Fast and easy account validation has become a crucial component in customer onboarding, and enterprises are struggling to find a fast, reliable, and cost-effective way to validate new accounts. VoPay's new Instant Micro-Transaction Verification tool does just that.”
VoPay's latest offering further strengthens the company's position as the leading provider of Fintech-as-a-Service tools and a go-to provider for businesses looking to integrate embedded financial services into their offerings.
VoPay Verify will be available to new and existing customers from February 1st. Sign up here for early access.
About VoPay
At the core of VoPay's offering is a multi-tenancy architecture, seamlessly integrated with a comprehensive payment engine and financial services solutions, epitomizing the concept of Fintech-as-a-Service. For software enterprises seeking to accelerate growth, expedite time to market, reduce operational costs, and enhance efficiency within their core platform, VoPay provides an embedded payment solution.
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