- Financial technology platform iCapital Network announced it closed a $146 million capital raise for fueling its future growth
Financial technology platform iCapital Network announced it closed a $146 million capital raise for fueling its future growth. Ping An Global Voyager Fund led the funding round as was joined by new investors Goldman Sachs, Affiliated Managers Group, Hamilton Lane, and WestCap. And additional commitments came from existing investors BlackRock, UBS Financial Services, Blackstone, and BNY Mellon.
iCapital has built a strong balance sheet and capital base from which to operate as an independent company. And the funding will enable the company to enhance its platform technology and expand functionality in support of its existing clients and continued growth, a diversified slate of investment offerings, and a globalized investor base.
The funding will support iCapital’s continued commitment to the international marketplace as it solidifies relationships with partners across North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. And iCapital will further its commitment to market education and build its team to help scale and improve upon the high-quality services and technical innovations it provides to clients.
Some of the additional existing strategic partners and investors in iCapital include The Carlyle Group, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Along with the investment, Ping An and other investors have indicated their intent to or have already partnered with iCapital to utilize its proprietary technology to help manage the end-to-end operations of their private market activities targeted to the high-net-worth wealth management marketplace.
iCapital’s modular technology and service platform is built to provide an end-to-end solution that is fully configurable, highly scalable, and able to support the unique subscription, administration, and reporting processes for private equity, private credit, hedge funds and other alternative investments. And it addresses many of the long-standing challenges of investing in alternatives by using technology to streamline access, ease operational burdens, and improve the user experience.
This platform is designed to meet the continually evolving needs of all industry participants: the advisors who need simplified and tech-enabled investment processes to help incorporate alternative investments in their clients’ portfolios, the asset managers looking to scale their fundraising efforts, and the wealth management firms seeking a technology platform to enhance or replace existing systems.
BlackRock, a long-standing strategic partner of iCapital, will take a significant minority stake in the independent company.
Last year, the company increased the assets it services from $8 billion to $46.6 billion across over 470 funds, 100,000 underlying accounts, and 55 white label partnerships. In August 2019, iCapital named four senior leaders to the executive team. Michael Kushner as Chief Financial Officer, Jennifer Ashley at Chief People Officer, Diane Frankenfield as Chief Marketing Officer, and Stephen Jacobs as General Counsel.
Key Quotes:
“We are honored to have the support of a distinguished group of strategic investors, and a world-class team completely focused on supporting the success of our clients. The asset and wealth management industries have embraced the need for an independent, automated, transparent approach to alternatives. The future we believe in and the future we are building is one where all parties win.”
-Lawrence Calcano, Chief Executive Officer of iCapital Network
“iCapital has rapidly established itself as a pre-eminent distribution, administration and workflow platform for high-net-worth access to alternative assets. They have strong partnerships with the leading wealth management players in the U.S. and, increasingly, globally. We are excited to partner with the iCapital team on its next stage of growth, and we see enormous opportunities to open up access to alternatives in Asia and beyond.”
-Jonathan Larsen, Chairman and CEO at Ping An Global Voyager Fund
“BlackRock is excited to continue to support iCapital in its next phase of growth as a well-capitalized, independent entity. As financial advisors explore the role alternatives can play in robust, diversified portfolios, iCapital’s leading open-architecture platform provides technology to streamline, automate and facilitate investments in private markets.”
-Rob Goldstein, Chief Operating Officer of BlackRock
