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

Now onto the news…

Company News 

Addepar’s New Trading Platform and Dashboards

• The wealth-tech giant, Addepar, launched a new trading platform and customizable dashboards.
• The trading platform enables full portfolio rebalancing, advanced model construction pre-trade compliance checks, and choice of trade execution methods (flat file vs FIX). The dashboards allow for flexible data visualization with drag-and-drop features and custom colors.
• Don Nilsson, Chief Product Officer at Addepar said: “Addepar Trading and Dashboards, alongside our Analysis, Reporting, Client Portal and Billing products, come together to create a comprehensive offering for RIAs.” 
• Addepar said that the trading module was built from scratch and is native to the platform, and that the aim is to consolidate wealth stacks for RIAs and wealth managers, improve portfolio insights and reduce cyber risks of managing multiple third party vendors. 

K1x Raises $20M Growth Investment 

• Edison Partners has doubled down on its existing investment in K1x by leading $20M growth round, bringing K1x’s total funding to $40 million.
• K1x is a SaaS fintech company specializing in AI-driven, all-digital K-1 data aggregation and reporting. It was spun out of Crowe LLP in 2022 following its acquisition of Crowe’s tax technology products.
• K1x serves major accounting firms and institutional investors, offering a solution that streamlines tax compliance processes. 

SS&C’s New AI-Powered Alternatives Tool For Data Aggregation

• SS&C Technologies introduced SS&C Accord, an AI-powered service to help wealth managers aggregate and process alternative investment data. 
• Combining automation, natural language processing, and manual review, it consolidates data from various sources, offering a unified view of traditional and alternative investments.
• Initially developed for Choreo, after their acquisition of BDO USA’s wealth management business, the tool integrates with SS&C’s ecosystem, including SS&C Black Diamond Wealth. SS&C said it also integrates with third-party reporting systems.

iCapital Surpasses $200 Billion in Global Platform Assets

• iCapital surpassed $200 billion in platform assets, driven by strong demand for private market funds and partnerships with global investment firms. 
• The firm is expanding globally, with new offices in Tokyo and plans for Australia and the Middle East.

Partnerships, Product Updates & New Clients

• Foundation Source launched “Impactfully Mobile,” a smartphone app that allows private foundations to manage grantmaking, expenses, and reporting on the go. This app expands the capabilities of their cloud-based platform, catering to Millennials and Gen Z, who are key players in the future of philanthropy. Users can make grants, track expenses, vote on applications, and monitor the impact of their contributions, all from their mobile devices. 

• ByAllAccounts introduced a new feature that provides open and closed tax lot data that allows advisors and investors to implement strategies like tax-loss harvesting and asset location optimization more efficiently and in compliance with regulations, such as the wash sale rule. It also improves performance reporting by including metrics like cost basis and unrealized gains/losses, while enabling in-depth historical analysis of realized gains and losses for better future investment strategies.

• Summitas and Orion have integrated their platforms combining Orion’s portfolio management tools with Summitas’ client communication, collaboration, and content management platform, allowing access to financial data within Summitas’ Finboard app. 

• Arch introduced a new feature called Arch Search, allowing users to quickly search for insights, keywords, and specific pages across the entire platform, including within their documents. This streamlines access to key data points like investment performance and portfolio updates.

• Hot on the heels of its $30M fundraise, Wealth.com has officially partnered with Addepar. The integration makes onboarding new clients easier by bypassing manual data entry and guides clients in creating their estate plans with a clear view of their assets. Addepar’s other recent integrations with similar tools include Luminary and Vanilla.

• Portfolio BI introduced new names for its product suite: Axiom is a centralized investment book of records (IBOR), PBI Vector integrates and transforms data from various sources and PBI Stratus is a managed security services provider. 

• Allvue Systems and Octaura partnered to enhance trading in the leveraged loan market by integrating Allvue’s trade order management system with Octaura’s electronic trading platform. The collaboration provides financial institutions and asset managers with access to liquidity, real-time price discovery, and execution workflows.

• ARQA AI’s new Smart Prompts feature helps users gather portfolio insights with intelligent, context-aware suggestions.

• d1g1t introduced a new revenue management and billing solution that simplifies fee calculations, supports various billing scenarios, and enhances revenue collection for wealth firms. It integrates with existing systems, handles multiple asset classes and currencies, and streamlines billing workflows to enable bulk invoicing. d1g1t also added French language support, allowing advisors and clients to access trading, billing, and reporting tools in French, particularly targeting Québec. 

• AltExchange partnered with Connetic Ventures to offer RIAs access to Connetic Ventures’ venture capital investments, along with automated reporting. 

• Vyzer added two RE investment firms, DLP Capital and MAG Capital Partners, to its investor portal integration. As part of its strategy, Vyzer has been integrating with various private investment portals and investor communities to provide more unified access to investments and holdings.

• Altoo, the Swiss wealthtech, launched a new mobile app to streamline wealth management. The app provides easy access to portfolio overviews, asset details, and reports.

• The key extraction and documentation capabilities of DataSnipper are now accessible in the Excel Online desktop app, even for Mac users. DataSnipper is an intelligent audit and documentation tool integrated with Excel that automates data extraction, cross-referencing, and documentation tasks for auditors and financial professionals.

New Clients

• Blue Trust selected Mammoth Technology to help launch a new faith-based private investing platform. Mammoth’s technology streamlines investment processes and onboarding, and creates tailored investment structures. At the same time, Blue Trust achieved $1 B in alternative investments on the iCapital platform, a partnership that began in 2019 to provide streamlined access to institutional-quality alternatives. Blue Trust manages $59 B in assets across the wealth spectrum.

• BMW Group, the famous carmaker, adopted ORCA’s automated structure charts to enhance their entity management system. 

• Alongside its Addepar partnership news, Wealth.com announced a new client – Adero Partners, a Palo Alto-based wealth manager founded in 1999 with $3.4B AuM. The platform also released several updates including AI enhancements for estate planning, real-time Schwab asset data integration, and a redesigned Report Builder for trust visualization.

• d1g1t added a new client – Burkett Asset Management, Victoria, BC-based manager with $300M AuM.

• Vanilla welcomed Bank of Jackson Hole Trust and Cedar Point Capital Partners to its platform.

Moving and Grooving 

• Aquilance appointed Kevin Reed as its first Chief Revenue Officer, bringing him onboard from Morningstar. Reed’s primary focus will be on driving company growth and increasing advisor referrals. This appointment is part of Aquilance’s expansion of its executive team, following the recent hires of John Carey as CEO and Craig Setera as CTO earlier in the year.

• Trusted Family appointed José Santos as its new Engineering Manager. He will be responsible for leading the product development team and focusing on data-driven improvements for client families.

• Clockwork appointed Rodrigo Vásquez del Mercado León as Senior Analyst for its Investment Solutions team. Rodrigo will support the company’s mission of delivering private investment solutions.