FOTechHub Bulletin: Family Office Technology News Roundup: Aug – Sep, 2024

Company News 

MyFOTech rebrands to FOTechHub: Family Office Tech & Ops Resource

• The rebranding reflects our mission to become the go-to learning resource for family offices, covering not only technology but also the closely connected operations. 
• This change is a natural evolution, reflecting growth, clarifying our mission and a commitment to a set of principles. 
• We now have over 1,000 members. Our website – FOTechHub.com – is a trusted platform for events, news and unbiased insights; we bring family offices together to learn and connect.  
• Our collaboration with Phil Strassler and the Larry Kraus Family Office Tech-NEW-logy Institute continues strongly. The Institute has welcomed two new members to its steering committee: Seung Feacher, CEO at Straffin Advisors LLC & Sophia Loh, Partner, Family Office at Frank Rimerman & Co. LLP. 

Eton Solutions’ EtonGPT™ is Officially Launched

• The newly-launched EtonGPT is a generative AI platform for family offices. It is integrated with the AtlasFive ERP system and available to most of its 750 families.
• Eton is an early leader in AI for family office solutions, with clients like Shade Tree Advisors (US), Todd Family Office (New Zealand), and Aglaia Family Office (Singapore) using it and tackling some early challenges like AI hallucinations.
• EtonGPT serves as an internal search and data extraction tool within the cloud-based AtlasFive ERP, handling 250 document types (e.g., trust plans, estate plans and partnership agreements).
• The platform uses machine learning, business rule engines, and large language models for data processing, backed by pending patents.
• Use cases include investment portfolio analysis, posting private investment mark-to-markets, logging invoices, and estate document summaries.

Wealth.com Raises $30M in Series A Funding 

• Wealth.com raised $30M in a Series A funding round led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), with participation from Citi Ventures, Outpost Ventures (an investment platform of Neuberger Berman), and others. The firm was launched in 2022 and had previously raised $16M in seed funding.
• The funding comes on the heels of wealth.com’s recent launch of its Family Office Suite for complex estate plans with tools such as scenario analysis, visualising tax implications and quantifying tax alpha, document vault and collaboration tools.
• The platform incorporates AI to extract and centrally store all key information from estate planning documents. 

Vanilla Closes New Funding Round

• Vanilla, another estate planning tech company, secured a new funding round led by Insight Partners, with additional backing from existing and new investors: Venrock, Vanguard, Edward Jones Ventures, and Alumni Ventures.
• The size of this round was not disclosed. Since its founding in 2010, Vanilla raised a total of $66M from notable institutions and individuals such as NBA legend Michael Jordan and F. William McNabb III (former CEO of Vanguard Group).
• Recent Vanilla innovations include: V/AI, Vanilla’s AI technology for estate planning, and Document Builder, an on-demand trust document offering, complementing Vanilla’s client estate summaries.
• According to the most recent T3 survey, the use of estate planning software spiked sharply among advisors over the last two years. Vanilla’s CEO, Gene Farrell, suggested that the pending sunset of the historically high estate tax exemption is driving some of this interest.

BlackCloak Raises $17M Series B to Expand Cybersecurity for High-Targeted Individuals

• BlackCloak, a provider in personal cybersecurity for corporate executives, high-net-worth individuals, and family offices, raised $17M in a Series B funding round led by Baird Capital, with participation from Blue Heron Capital, TDF Ventures, TechOperators, and DataTribe.
• The funds will be used to expand its Digital Executive Protection platform that uses guidance, concierge support, and automation, as well as to develop new products.
• BlackCloak’s platform offers protection against deepfakes, social engineering attacks, cyber-extortion, doxxing, and even physical threats. It serves Fortune 50 companies, financial institutions, public officials, and talent management firms in the entertainment industry.

VRGL Closes New Funding Round

• VRGL, a client acquisition and investment proposal platform, completed a funding round led by FINTOP Capital and MissionOG, with support from Northwestern Mutual, Flyover Capital, and Fin Capital. The size of this round was not disclosed.
• Founded in 2021, VRGL has grown rapidly, streamlining investment proposals to boost revenue and client conversions.
• VRGL’s clients include small RIAs as well as the likes of Dynasty Financial Partners, Ritholtz Wealth Management, Sequoia Financial Group, and Steward Partners.

Partnerships, Product Updates & New Clients

• Canoe and iPaladin partnered to streamline family office operations by automating document management and integrating workflows, with Third Lake Capital being the first client to benefit from this collaboration. Canoe gathers the documents and iPaladin integrates them into its unified system, triggering tasks and updating compliance processes. 

• iPaladin also announced an integration with Dropbox Sign. 

• Canoe’s other recent partnership with Luxembourg-based fundcraft aims to improve fund operations for alternative asset managers. fundcraft, licensed by Luxembourg’s CSSF, offers a digital platform that manages the fund lifecycle, uniting banks, lawyers and auditors. The partnership combines fundcraft’s platform with Canoe’s AI-driven document processing.

• Arch, a digital private investments platform, partnered with Ultimus LeverPoint, a fund admin and accounting provider supporting $235B in assets. The collaboration aims to automate tasks and improve data management for asset managers, allocators and accountants through tools like automated data retrieval (call notices, distributions, account statements, etc), centralized documents storage, real-time notifications and digital workflows. 

• LemonEdge, a private markets fund accounting platform with $1.7T in assets under client management, and Eleven, a platform automating private investment workflows, partnered to integrate their technologies. This collaboration offers fund managers real-time financial data and automated investor lifecycle management, including digital subscriptions, investor onboarding and investor servicing. The partnership leverages both companies’ APIs to build a native integration.

• Addepar formed an exclusive partnership with Itaú Private, granting the bank access to its data aggregation and performance reporting platform in Brazil. With over $170B in assets under management, Itaú ranks as one of the largest banks in Latin America. Addepar manages more than $6T in assets across clients in 45 countries.

• Arta Finance welcomed EDBI Pte Ltd, the investment arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board, as a key partner. EDBI has made an undisclosed investment in Arta, which brands itself as ‘digital family office’. The company is dual-headquartered in Silicon Valley and Singapore and it has recently received regulatory approval to operate in Singapore. Founded by former Google executives, Arta emerged from its “stealth” phase in 2022, raising over $120M from investors including Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO. 

• Envestnet launched new capabilities for RIAs, including an enhanced fixed-income trading tool and an updated client portal. Envestnet RIA Trading is now available as a standalone module for RIAs without switching their reporting tool (Envestnet’s reporting module is Tamarac and it integrates with MoneyGuide for planning). In recent months, the firm confirmed a $4.5B sale to Bain Capital, which spurred executive departures, including Dani Fava and Rich Aneser. Additionally, Envestnet faces lawsuits regarding buyout disclosures and failing to fix billing software. See more in Citywire RIA.

• ARQA announced an update to its Korscript tool, which now allows users to extract key data from custodian statements.

• Altvia, a private capital markets technology, released an upgrade to ShareSecure, their LP portal and virtual Data Room (VDR). New features, including customizable landing pages and workspaces, enable investor relations (IR) professionals to create personalized digital experiences for LPs based on each investor’s preferences.

• Elysys & TM Group: In our previous bulletin, we discussed the new partnership between Elysys Financial Systems, a Monaco-based provider of family office solutions built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and The TM Group, Inc., a Michigan-based company offering consulting and development services for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. You can now learn more about this collaboration here. 

• TM Group: In related news, the TM Group has partnered with Tangicloud to enhance financial management solutions for nonprofits, including foundations. Their collaboration integrates Tangicloud’s Fundamentals, built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, with TMG’s expertise, offering tools for fund accounting, grant management, and budget controls.

• AltExchange and Spirits Capital Corporation partnered to offer RIAs access to whiskey-backed spirits investments with automated client reporting. This enables RIAs to manage Cask Investment Deeds through AltExchange’s platform, providing real-time and historical reporting, tax document automation, and integration with wealth management systems.

• D1g1t announced that Burkett Asset Management, a Canadian wealth manager with $300M in assets, has implemented its wealth management platform, using its performance reporting, portfolio management, client portal, and billing modules.

• Pando Alts said it was launching a pilot program with select undisclosed industry leaders, two months after releasing its SaaS platform. Founded in June 2023, Pando Alts aims to connect broker/dealers, GPs, and wealth managers in order to facilitate and streamline alternative investing.

• WealthArc partnered with Polixis, a Swiss provider of AML and KYC solutions, to automate KYC screening. This collaboration aims to offer wealth managers access to private banking-grade KYC due diligence and sanctions screening, improving regulatory compliance.

• Abbove, a Brussels-based wealth planning platform, partnered with French tax simulation software Simulabox, enhancing Abbove’s offering in France and strengthening its presence in Europe. Abbove, formerly PaxFamilia, connects financial advisors and clients through its platform, while Simulabox simplifies wealth and tax advisory with intuitive tools.

   

Moving and Grooving 

• CAIS appointed Kan Kotecha as Chief Technology Officer to lead the development of a unified operating system for alternative investments leveraging AI. Kotecha’s experience include leadership roles in Google’s corporate engineering division and serving as CTO of wealth management at Morgan Stanley. He is replacing Shane Williams. 

• Eton Solutions appointed Taruna Gautam as its new Chief Customer Officer (CCO). She’s been with Eton Solutions for two years as Head of Product focusing on wealth-tech product Innovation and driving product development and delivery.

• Docupace, which focuses on digitizing and automating operations, named Lori Hardwick as Chair of its Board of Directors. Hardwick co-founded Envestnet and later became COO of BNY Mellon’s Pershing before co-founding AI Labs. She is serving on the boards of Cetera Financial Group, Orion Advisor Solutions, Cerity Partners, Vestwell and Genstar Capital, which recently invested in Docupace. 

• Orion hired Mark Mayo as its new CFO, following the departure of Daniel Applegarth. Mayo, who previously worked as CFO at DISA Global Solutions and spent 13 years at General Electric, will oversee Orion’s financial strategy. His hiring is part of broader executive changes, including the departure of COO Randy Lambert and President of Advisor Technology Brian McLaughlin (who was also the founder of Redtail, a CRM software). Orion is led by CEO Natalie Wolfsen and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Genstar Capital.

• Aleta, a Danish wealth platform aiming to expand into the US, appointed Rikke Slipsager Jørgensen as its new Head of Clients. Based in Denmark, Jørgensen joins the company from Deloitte.

• Clockwork grew its team by appointing Carlos Saballos as Manager, Clockwork Investment Solutions. Founded in 2016, the Charlottesville, VA-based fintech specializes in streamlining private investment portfolio monitoring, due diligence, and financial management for companies.