FST Network, a Data Governance startup aiming to deliver a comprehensive set of tools for data governance, management & lineage has raised $2.9 million in seed funding. The seed round was led by H&Q Asia Pacific with participation of National Development Fund Taiwan, Red Building Capital & AVA ( Angel to Venture Accelerator ) and this investment will be used to accelerate the company’s rapid growth, enhance product development and expand sales & marketing efforts. Since FST Network launched its beta in late 2019, it has attracted clients ranging from small- to large-sized enterprises, across three countries- The United Kingdom, Japan and Taiwan. Legacy systems have slow down operation and rack up costs have long been pain points for financial institutions. Especially in this data-driven era, there is a widening gap between the needs of data-driven processes and the lack of efficiency in data management.
Jack Chu, CEO, and founder of FST Network, developed the company after a stint as a consultant in the financial industry. His vision was to create a tool optimized for the continuity of a data network. Existing solutions have tended to treat each of those business lines separately. That, Jack believes, has led to stagnation of operations, in turn limiting the ability of companies to scale and subjecting them to higher costs and legal risk. FST Network’s approach is to establish a self-service data network for omni- data preparation provided with Logic Mesh, Lineage and Function as a Service among all existing systems without the need of replacing or interrupting any of the current systems.
On top of the traditional data governance tool, FST offers another perspective from the metadata and attributes to realise the data integrity. The governance works in much higher precision and comprehension.
As the BFSI industry goes digital, FST Network was a first mover to reinvent the way how financial institutions manage the exponential growth of data, by enabling BFSIs to automate their data governance process, FST Network is “an essential innovation needed to equip BFSI industry to scale effectively in a data-driven era,” Jack said.
“While the BFSI industry is going through incredible growth, the increasing complexity of the various data pipeline demands modernization of back-office operations. FST Network’s technology is the platform we need now to connect people, data and processes within Financial Institution,” said Jack Chu.
“We exist to eliminate data duplication, silos and legacies,” said Jack, who has experienced the challenges within the BFSI Industry. “We value the opportunity to help our clients thrive in the rapidly evolving BFSI industry.”