ARK creates new value for Telecoms and Banks in a data and revenue sharing ecosystem which drives profitability and customer loyalty:

For Telecoms, ARK generates revenues which drop to the bottom line, by enabling mobile customers to qualify for competitive offers from leading banks. The ARK program encourages stickiness to the mobile network in prepaid markets, increased spend and regularity, and adoption of new products including m-wallets. Telecoms also receive ARK's innovative CRM solution which enables behavior-based management of churn and campaign targeting for new product and offers.

For Banks, ARK provides a massively improved customer acquisition channel for billions of mobile phone customers. For the first time, the credit worthiness of mobile phone customers, including the 'un-banked' market, can be queried at the click of a button. Banks can send targeted offers to large new segments of qualified customers through direct messaging to their mobile phone, and query the credit worthiness of new or existing customers at point of application.

ARK technology is based on a radical new insight into behaviour based credit scoring. Traditional credit scores view customers as static agents defined mostly by assets, liabilities, claimed attributes and historical perspectives. These techniques are not applicable to emerging market contexts where little reliable data is available. ARK credit scores are based on the relationship between mobile phone behaviour and borrowing behaviour. ARK is responsive to customers' most recent behaviours, ensuring that the credit score is real-time and reliable. ARK's interface for Telecoms and Banks is served through secure browsable web portals which ensure data integrity and zero interference with existing IT infrastructure.

Managing Director, Dan Marmar MBA

Dan is co-founder and champion of ARK's mission to empower a billion un-banked people with access to competitive financial services. Dan works directly with partner Telecom, Bank and Regulator senior management to ensure that incentives are aligned and that the end customers' interests are always primary. Dan has a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Oxford, Said Business School. Dan has a background in social entrepreneurship, where he has managed, consulted, and founded organizations in USA and UK. He is the founder and President of Youth Business Development, a global business competition hosted at the University of Oxford which empowers youth entrepreneurs to develop and launch businesses with the support of MBA mentors. He is a strategy associate at Participle, the UK's leading consultancy supporting government in tackling the largest social issues of our time.

Technical Director, Professor Peter Grindrod CBE

Pete is co-founder and inventor of ARK's novel behavior based credit scoring technology. Pete is a Professor of Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Reading Departments of Mathematics and Centre for Advanced Computing and Emerging Technologies. Pete serves as the Chairman of the Advisory Board for Applied Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow and former President of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications. He serves on a range of scientific committees including the Ministry of Defense and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. He was awarded a CBE for his services to mathematics research and development. Pete has extensive commercial experience including acting as Founder and Technical Director of NumberCraft, acquired in 2003 by Lawson Software where he subsequently served as Head of retail mathematics based research and technology group.

Head of Software Development, Christopher Tandy

Chris is the designer and author of ARK's software architecture and works directly with ARK partner Telecom and Bank Senior Technicians to facilitate safe and trouble-free technology integration. Chris is a a top data analytics software developer with 15 years of industry experience processing large data sets. Chris's strength is devising safe efficient schemes for data transfer and encapsulating sophisticated mathematical techniques into user-friendly software. Chris was the Head of Software Development at Numbercraft and a number of other major analytic firms where he performed sensitive data warehousing and analytics for some of Europe and America’s largest retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Safeway, Proctor and Gamble, Walmart, ASDA and Boots.