All organisations employing at least 250 employees incorporated in The Netherlands are to comply with the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive. The Directive is aimed at providing a minimum standard of protection across the European Union for employees reporting report breaches of European law, such as fraud, misconduct or harassment. In the run-up to compliance, leading ethics and compliance software provider People Intouch has seen a rapid increase in the adoption of their whistleblowing platform SpeakUp across 60 countries. The acquisition of a majority stake in the company by B2B software investor Fortino Capital proves the market’s confidence in People Intouch’s mission and solution.
Leveraging technology and knowledge for easy compliance
Founded in 2004, People Intouch is a leading ethics and compliance software provider focused on providing whistleblowing solutions under the SpeakUp brand. Around 500 mid-sized and large organisations in over 60 countries rely on the innovative SpeakUp platform every day. This platform enables them to connect with and protect their employees, suppliers and the communities in which they are active, by providing a user-friendly, secure and efficient way to report and correct irregularities and unethical behaviour. SpeakUp is operational in very country in the world and allows employees to communicate in their native language 24/7/365 via mobile app, web or telephone.
Adoption fuelled by The Directive
Fuelled by upcoming regulation and an overall push for more transparency in society, People Intouch is seeing the volume of reports consistently increase by high double-digit figures in recent years. More than 50,000 messages were submitted in 2022. To meet this growth, the company decided to invest significantly in its next generation SpeakUp platform and the accompanying SpeakUp Success Model. The SpeakUp platform combines anonymous communication, intuitive case management and advanced analytics functionalities. The SpeakUp Success Model ensures that SpeakUp truly becomes integrated in the organisation. People Intouch’s unique approach is valued by many leading European multinationals such as Nestlé, Randstad, KLM, Skanska, Polestar, Sweco and HILTI. Fortino Capital recognised the value of the platform, the team’s deep domain knowledge and customer proximity, resulting in a majority investment and partnership with the company to help fuel its further growth.
Maurice Canisius, CEO of People Intouch: “Whistleblowing is a priority in many boardrooms today, and rightly so, because we all know speaking up is hard. Our mission is to protect & connect people and organisations. The way we do that is by making it easier for people to speak up. In the last few years, we managed to combine our unique expertise and knowledge into our advanced SpeakUp platform. We help our customers to more easily address the whistleblowing dilemma and navigate the journey towards organisational transparency while also making them regulatory compliant. Our entire team is looking forward to partner up with an experienced investor like Fortino. With them on board, we will be able to deliver more knowledge, keep innovating our product and make an even bigger impact for organisations and their employees.”
Ida Kuijken, Partner with Fortino Capital: “The Whistleblowing market is expected to expand tremendously, driven by societal shift towards increased transparency and initiatives such as the European Whistleblower Protection Directive. Maurice & Raymond Canisius have laid a solid foundation for the future and we are impressed with what they have managed to achieve to date. We are convinced that with a powerful, secure and user-friendly product in combination with a strong team, People Intouch is optimally positioned to capitalise on these trends. Our investment and operating teams look forward to partnering up and accelerating the business strategically and geographically”.
Flavio de Souza, Chief Compliance Officer of Nestlé Group: “People Intouch’s team is passionate and willing to efficiently understand our needs and developments. Their unique SpeakUp technology and how they approach us have been essential for the continuity and development of our global compliance program. We are looking forward to seeing what is next.”