Fenergo, a Dublin-based FinTech, has achieved unicorn status after selling a $600 million stake in its business.

The RegTech, founded in 2009, provides regulatory compliance solutions for KYC and AML and claims to work with 32 of the 50 largest banks globally, including Credit Suisse, UBS, and Santander.

Fenergo currently employs around 1,000 people across 14 offices.

The deal valued the company at $1.17 billion, according to sources reported by the Irish Times.

This makes Fenergo the third unicorn that Ireland has produced to date, alongside messaging platform Intercom and human capital management (HCM) vendor Workhuman.

The stake was purchased by UK private equity (PE) firm Bridgepoint, who focus on mid-level businesses and recently owned Pret a Manger, and French PE firm Astorg.

The stake was previously owned by Insight Venture Partners, who invested $75 million in Fenergo in 2015, and B2B IT firm DXC.

Chief executive Marc Murphy, who has a 10 per cent stake in the RegTech, has reportedly reinvested his earnings from the sale.

The news comes after the company raised $80 million at a valuation of around $800 in February 2020.

RegTech continues to be a large and growing market internationally. KMPG research has estimated that financial institutions spent $270 billion annually on compliance in 2018, and that $76 billion will be spent on RegTech by 2022 - up from $10.6 billion in 2017.

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