Virginie Fauvel, CEO of Harvest, answers questions from Mathilde Hodouin for Le Courrier Financier.
On Tuesday 5 September, the Harvest group announced the closing of the acquisition of its main competitor, software publisher Manymore. What is at stake in this latest acquisition? Virginie Fauvel, CEO of Harvest, talks exclusively to Le Courrier Financier.
Quantalys, Feefty and now Manymore. On 11 July this year, the Harvest group, which specialises in software for the asset management and finance industries, announced its intention to acquire its main competitor. The deal closed on Tuesday 5 September. On the wealth management tools market, Harvest has doubled in size in the space of five years. The aim is to conquer the European wealth management ecosystem.
How can we meet the new challenges of this market, in terms of regulatory obligations and data security? Virginie Fauvel, CEO of Harvest, answers questions from Le Courrier Financier.
The Harvest group announces the closing of its acquisition of Manymore on Tuesday 5 September 2023.
C.F.: After Fidroit, Quantalys and Feefty, the Harvest group acquires Manymore. What changes will this operation bring to the Harvest group? How will your teams develop?
Virginie Fauvel: Our group has an organisation that is ready to make acquisitions. The Manymore teams, depending on their mission, will naturally be welcomed into the Harvest teams.
We recruit between 50 and 80 talented people every year, so this addition today is excellent news for Harvest. We have met some very talented people who have been won over by the project to create a European champion. With this acquisition, our group now has 500 people in France and Italy.
C.F.: What will change for Manymore’s existing clients? What will happen to the functionality of the Prisme tool over the next two years?
V.F.: Manymore’s asset managers clients will benefit from the robustness of Harvest and its comprehensive range of interlinked software solutions. Prisme will gradually join O2S, which will be the flagship software.
In 2023, it is necessary to have the critical mass to invest massively in data security, compliance and ongoing regulatory changes, but also to continue to innovate. Harvest’s vitality will enable us to serve asset managers even better.
C.F.: At Harvest, the development of your tools addresses several challenges: data security, tightening of regulatory standards. How are you keeping pace with changes in the asset management ecosystem?
V.F.: We have around 300 people dedicated to technology and 200 people dedicated to the wealth management business. All of them are in-house and therefore great experts in our businesses. As you know, our businesses are demanding in terms of security, compliance and regulatory changes.
We support the wealth management ecosystem by keeping abreast of developments, building quality software, advising professionals with our case study team and training them with our Harvest Fidroit Academy, which will be further strengthened with the arrival of Nextforma.
C.F.: Artificial intelligence (AI) is opening up new horizons in the world of wealth tech. What role do you see it playing? How do you support your customers in adopting this new technology?
V.F.: AI is going to revolutionise all our businesses. We have launched a debate on the impact of AI within our group, and some of our employees have begun to work on the subject in depth. We have already used it operationally, under the supervision of a human brain, before the summer.
We are very interested in the challenges and impacts of AI on a company like Harvest. Once again, it’s essential to be big enough to take on board and integrate these technologies. Being too small means not being able to take these changes on board.
C.F.: Over the next five years, how will the Harvest group continue to grow in Europe?
V.F.: Our next challenge, beyond the AI that we are going to integrate into our tools, will be to conquer Europe. Some of our customers are asking us to do this. We are already working with major European insurers in three countries (Italy, Luxembourg and France), and we want to extend our offering to other countries.
The European software market is still fragmented. We think it’s going to consolidate, and we want to be the player that consolidates this market and becomes the European leader. That’s an exciting prospect for the next few years: I wake up every morning with that in mind.
This is a translation of an article by Mathilde Hodouin for Le Courrier Financier.
Copyright : Cyril Poisson, Content Manager, Harvest
Source : Le Courrier Financier