Banksealer is a spin-off of the Polytechnic of Milan. This last, drawing from academic research in artificial intelligence and machine learning, has realized technology transfer by applying algorithmic results on a platform to subsequently build behavioral models useful for fraud identification and decision support. CEO Alvise Biffi tells how 2020 was and what his plans are for 2021

What does Banksealer do and who does it target?

The Banksealer platform identifies fraud by working on the analysis of the behaviour of the subjects participating in the process under examination. The typology of the controlled process can be multiple: passive cycle, active cycle, goods, e-commerce, digital payments, system access log. The platform operates with a white-box machine learning approach. The solution is addressed toward corporations, banks, insurance companies, public administration, subjects operating in the world of e-commerce and in general subjects operating in B2C logic. The system is also suitable for the control of internal processes of large organizations.

How has your business changed with the arrival of the pandemic? How has it impacted both quantitatively and qualitatively on your work?

The pandemic has certainly increased market interest in solutions like Banksealer. The sudden increase in “home working” has widened the attack surface in corporate subjects and consequently there has been an exponential increase in fraud attempts, many of which unfortunately are successful. Despite the increase in demand, we have seen a marked slowdown in the commercial sales cycle. The pandemic has lengthened contact and decision-making times and reduced the budgets of a large proportion of our potential customers, so although demand is growing, conversion times have lengthened due to market uncertainty.

What are your plans for 2021?

Having registered a very strong increase in demand in the corporate target, in particular for the passive cycle, we are completing the standard integration of our platform with the main ERPs directly in the Cloud. We have been selected by Microsoft for their international startup program and we are working on the integration of Banksealer among the extension dynamics directly available in the Microsoft marketplace in order to simplify in a plug and play logic the installation of our product for all their customers.

Have you done, or would you like to do, any open innovation projects? With what kind of players?

We are carrying out a project of experimental application of our algorithmic engine together with one of the main international players in the trading of raw materials. One of the main strengths of our engine is its adaptability, so we are available to new experiments for all areas of application of dynamic analysis through behavioral models. For example,with insurance players, there are several possible applications not only for anti-fraud but also for recommendation logic. We would like to find partners to start an experimentation in open innovation logic.

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