Two Fuse companies win Reserve Bank of India and Bank for International Settlements G20 TechSprint 2023

Millicent Labs, a pioneering fintech company dedicated to financial inclusion, won the challenge on FX and liquidity technology solutions to enable settlement in emerging market and developing economy (EMDE) currencies. Their solution was LOFTHub - a hybrid decentralized currency exchange designed to improve liquidity and mitigate risks associated with cross-border payments and FX in EMDE currencies by combining the liquidity provisioning model of an Automated Market Maker with the execution functionality of a conventional limit order book, tempering price volatility to suit both professional and retail contexts.

Secretarium, a leading privacy technology company, won the challenge of fighting money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism, and tax and sanctions evasion. Their solution enables financial institutions to collaborate cross-border to gain insights into suspicious activity without disclosing any data or compromising privacy. It uses artificial intelligence to identify patterns that may indicate suspicious activity, and provides secure rooms for private investigations.

Fuse brings together A&O lawyers, clients and a curated group of technology companies to explore, develop and implement digital change. Fuse is the first permanent – and still unrivalled – space of its kind in any international law firm; a specially designed innovation space in A&O’s London office. Millicent Labs are a member of the current Fuse cohort, while Secretarium were a part of Cohort 4 in 2020. 

Shruti Ajitsaria, partner at A&O and head of Fuse, said: ‘This is yet another example of Fuse cohort members going on to achieve incredible success. We couldn’t be more proud of Millicent and Secretarium, especially as we know there is so much more to come.’

Bertrand Foing, Founder & CEO at Secretarium, said: ‘Privacy-preserving computation is the key to cross-firm and cross-border data collaboration. It opens many opportunities to fight financial crime in a controlled way, without creating mass surveillance systems.’

Kene Ezeji-Okoye, Co-CEO at Millicent Labs, said; ‘This win, and the validation of the international financial community, is a monumental step towards our vision of a more interconnected and inclusive global financial landscape powered by innovative and well-designed distributed ledger systems.’