L&T buys stake in B2B software firm Help Lightning; LTI expands contract with Hoist Finance

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) will acquire a 6.35% stake in Delaware based remote virtual assistance application firm Help Lightning. L&T subsidiary L&T International has entered into an agreement to acquire the stake for a cash consideration of $2.5 million. The deal is expected to close by May 22, the company said in a regulatory filing. 

L&T will receive 2,241,408.68 shares of Series A preferred stock. This represents diluted stake of 6.35% of outstanding shares as on date, it said in the filing. 

Founded in 2019, Help Lightning offers a patent protected mixed reality platform that enables virtual collaboration for field service personnel. At present it has over 50,000 users in 88 countries and a team of 33 employees. It operates in the US and has a captive development center in Beijing, China. The company reported a turnover of $4 million in financial year 2020. 

L&T expects to leverage the investment strategically in terms of using Help Lightening’s solutions to enable its businesses to manage operations more efficiently without the need for personnel to travel to sites. Also, it will be extremely useful in minimizing disruptions caused by the pandemic, the company said in the filing.  

Separately, the Mumbai based company’s mid-tier IT services arm L&T Infotech (LTI) has been signed on by pan-European financial services firm Hoist Finance to provide banking-as-a-service for the latter’s performing loans segment. LTI’s Digital Banking platform will enable Hoist Finance to scale and on-board new asset classes faster across regions. The contract is an expansion of LTI's ongoing vendor relationship with Hoist Finance.

The platform provides seamless interoperability, agility, and higher security at a lower total cost of ownership. It will seamlessly operate across existing Hoist applications and infrastructure through an API driven interface to connect with third party systems, LTI said in a statement. 

LTI’s platform provides end-to-end integration with Temenos Transact, Temenos Infinity, Temenos Payments, and Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation as well as fintech solutions such as regulatory reporting, authentication, KYC solutions, card services, and payment solutions available on Temenos Marketplace. 

“The strategic partnership with LTI is in line with our growth strategy for performing loans segment in Europe. It will help us strengthen Hoist’s positioning as a leader in this segment with digital-first strategies. LTI has been a strategic partner for Hoist since 2019 and has supported multiple transformation initiatives, spanning workplace transformation, infrastructure transformation and migration to the cloud,” Hoist Finance CEO Klaus-Anders Nysteen said. 

“LTI’s digital banking platform combines our functional and technological expertise to modernize operations without huge upfront investment or license cost. The consumption-based model offered by the platform will enable banks to stay competitive without worrying about technology cycles,” LTI CEO and managing director Sanjay Jalona added. 

This month, L&T’s pureplay engineering services arm L&T Technology Services and chipmaker Intel announced a collaboration to develop an AI-based parking guidance system aiming to help drivers locate parking spaces nearby.