Dublin-based betting technology startup Banach Technology (BT) has secured some €2.2 million (US$2.56 million) in enterprise funding to help expand its product development services.
BT announced that its funding round had been “significantly oversubscribed,” thanks to the generous backers who decided to punt on the company. These investors include Paddy Power co-founders David Power and Stewart Kenny, who reportedly invested some €200,000 ($232,738) and €100,000 ($116,369) in BT, respectively.
Other ex-Paddy Power executives who made a big bet on BT were former chief executive Patrick Kennedy, former chief financial officer Cormac McCarthy, and Cormac Barry, who ran Paddy Power’s Australian division until early 2018.
BT Managing Director Rob Reck said the funds raised will be used to expand its product development services as well as hire more staff members—mostly quant mathematicians, software engineers, and product development specialists. The startup targets to increase its manpower from 12 to 30 by the end of 2018.
According to its company profile, BT is a technology startup that offers pricing, product, and customer experience to sports betting operators. Some of its biggest clients are BetBright, GVC Holdings, which owns Ladbrokes Coral and Bwin, and Paddy Power Betfair, which includes the brands Paddy Power, Betfair, and Sportsbet.
The company was founded by Reck, CEO Mark Hughes, Chief Technology Officer Alex Zevenbergen, and Chief Operating Officer Hadrien Lepretre. Before establishing BT, Hughes served as head of Quants at Paddy Power from 2012 to 2014. He replaced Reck after the latter was appointed a principal analyst in the Irish sports betting firm.
Zevenbergen worked in Paddy Power as senior software engineer from 2008 to 2015 while Lepretre served as quantitative logistics CEO from 2014 to 2015 before deciding to collaborate with the three other BT founders.
On its website, the company said it has “developed technology that will revolutionize and automate the same game multiples process” as well as “empower customers in structuring a personalized bet consisting of correlated same game multiples.”
