Contact Information:

infraccess / Neil Smith

neilrsmith@infraccess.net
+1 347 454 4872

Fin Tech Startup Infraccess Preps Infrastructure Funding

Database
The vendor's data and analytics platform will bring greater transparency to
the global infrastructure finance market
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK CITY, NY - 30 June 2016 New York-based Infraccess, a financial data
and technology startup founded by two former Standard & Poor's senior
executives, is developing a data service that aims to bring greater transparency
and liquidity to the global infrastructure finance market.
There is a current funding crisis in the global infrastructure market. An annual
$1 trillion financing gap exists between global infrastructure investment needs
and the amount traditional financing sources are able to provide. Attracting
new investors is key to closing this gap. Up until now this has been hampered
by a lack of useable data on bankable investment opportunities
Infraccess employs artificial intelligence AI and proprietary machine learning
technology to mine public sources of unstructured information. It
automatically extracts, standardizes and updates relevant data points to create
a platform of real time structured data about current and pending
infrastructure projects and their financing.
CEO Neil Smith says the infraccess platform finally gives infrastructure
investment professionals the work flow tools they need to make better
informed decisions; provide a global pipeline of bankable projects and access
a project document repository. Using data science it also delivers a proprietary
Smart Alpha predictive indicator of a projects potential success.
+1 (347) 454 4872

www.infraccess.net

New York City, NY.

Infraccess is principally aimed at pension funds, asset owners and investment

managers who want direct exposure to the market but have held back
allocating significant amounts of their portfolios to infrastructure projects
mainly because of a lack of available relevant data.
Until now, these institutional investors relied on the bankers pitching deals, or
having to seek out data themselves from individual government agencies. Even
if the information is obtained it can be hard to properly compare different
projects directly.
Meanwhile, existing vendor services in this area generally collect the data
manually and usually make it available in the form of unstructured
information, such as newsletters compiled by journalists and analysts or on
difficult to use web based interfaces, says Infraccess founder Neil Smith.
As a result, investors typically invest in infrastructure-related investment trusts
that may comprise energy or construction company equity, rather than direct
investment in infrastructure projects debt and equity.
In contrast, by bringing more transparency -- and hence liquidity -- to this
market, Smith says; Infraccess will empower institutional investors to invest
directly in the projects via specific municipal bonds, project financing loans
from banks, or the equities or project finance bonds issued by a Special
Purpose Vehicle created for a specific project.
Government Agencies themselves are keenly interested in raising awareness
of their PPP projects as a way to attract more and diversified investors and to
get better pricing. And some of the construction companies and advisory firms
are also interested because it gives them a single source for identifying
business development opportunities around upcoming projects," Smith says.
Infraccess' proprietary technology discovers and standardizes information
sources to update its database in real time including project structure, size and
status information; participant and financing details; and operating
performance metrics. Delivery by a web-based platform with crisp user

+1 (347) 454 4872

www.infraccess.net

New York City, NY.

interface, will allow users to quickly and easily compare and benchmark the
value of different projects and efficiently make investment decisions.
The next step, Smith adds, is to develop algorithmic derived scores for projects,
based on critical approval, construction, operating variables which investors
can then use as a predictive indicator for other projects that share similar
characteristics.
Smith plans to name a full management team later this year -- including
product and commercial executives, plus developers and a chief data officer -the first of whom is managing director and infrastructure specialist Arthur
Simonson, who spent over 20 years at S&P, most recently as managing director
of credit ratings for Infrastructure and Latin America.
Smith himself founded Infraccess last year after serving as managing director
of S&P Credit Solutions at S&P Capital IQ, prior to which he spent four years as
managing director and global product head at Fitch Solutions, and three and a
half years as a managing director at Bank of New York Mellon, dealing with
structured financial products and project financings. Before joining BNY Mellon
in 2007, Smith spent 10 plus years at Citigroup in various roles, including
investment center head, business manager and senior investment officer for
the banks Citibank Alternative Investments division in New York, and as head
of credit and portfolio advisor at Citibank Credit Structures in London.
I have been involved in this market sphere for some time ever since being
head of the Asset Management Taskforce in Western Australia in the early
1990s. I have been thinking about inefficiencies in the infrastructure market
for a while, and especially over the last couple of years. For example, at BNY
Mellon, I worked on International Custody and Trust, which involved a lot of
project financing," Smith says. "Demand for infrastructure financing continues
to grow... but I also saw the weaknesses in the market -- the small number of
players, and the lack of transparency."
Infraccess will offer its database via a front-end web interface on a per user
subscription basis . Smith is currently working with NYC based product
development team Sea Salt Ventures on refining a product prototype. He
declines to give a specific date for when the service will commercially launch,

+1 (347) 454 4872

www.infraccess.net

New York City, NY.

but says the team plans to begin a testing and validation period with a select
group of early-adopter clients in October or November.

Background Corporate Information.

Infraccess LLC is a NYC based fin-tech start up, providing the only global,
comprehensive and independent Data Information and Analytics Platform for
Infrastructure Project Financing, Investing and Advisory services. Infraccess was
founded by Neil R Smith and Arthur Simonson.
Infraccess has developed and applied proprietary AI machine learning systems
for the extraction and standardization of publicly available data on a real time
basis.
The Infraccess marketing web site can be found at infraccess.net
Follow infraccess, click links

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Infraccess is a US based data and information vendor for the infrastructure /

project finance market. Infraccess provides its services to corporate entities on
a subscription basis for information purposes only.The information we provide
and publish is based on our opinions plus our statistical and financial data and
independent research. They do not reflect the views or opinions of any other
provider. It is not intended to be investment or trading advice. Infraccess is not
an investment advisor. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.
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+1 (347) 454 4872

www.infraccess.net

New York City, NY.