Leveraging more than 10 years of R&D in data fusion, Semsoft has developed the Lestr software platform to drive the fight against illicit activities performed under the guise of international trade.
Semsoft is a French technology company founded in 2009 by François Paulus, originally a spin-off from Orange Labs and the result of 10 years of research in data fusion and artificial intelligence. In 2018, after spending several years transforming the promises of Big Data into concrete operational contributions on a wide range of business topics, Semsoft decided to focus on tackling criminal activity at sea.
Lestr is the software solution that Semsoft developed to help the fight against illicit activities performed under the guise of international trade by using maritime freight transport as a cover. Lestr started as an HSBC project to assure HSBC trade finance operations with regard to international sanctions and AML/CFT regulations, while at the same time allowing operational efficiency by automating time-consuming manual controls. Lestr is today used by financial institutions and government authorities in charge of maritime security issues.
Semsoft is based in Rennes, Brittany, a region historically related to maritime trade. By the way, Lestr stands for “vessel” in the Breton language.
International trade is at the heart of how our societies function. Unfortunately, international trade also has a dark side. It is impossible to physically track each container, and to precisely follow each vessel, making international trade vulnerable to illicit activities: circumvention of embargoes, violation of sanctions, trade-based money laundering, drugs trafficking, etc.
In this context, our objective is to collect, cross-check and analyse data to analyse all the facets of an international trade transactions and detect illicit or suspicious activities in order to protect international trade from illegal or damaging practices.
Our ambition is to become a major player in the fight against crime carried out under the guise of international trade.
"The value added by the solution is in time saved. Since the time needed to perform controls is divided by five - reduced to 10 minutes, this is on top of the increased transparency for the customer."