We are primarily focused on backing companies which help investors generate alpha, improve internal processes, or acquire clients.
Investment management offers unusually high margins and unusually dissatisfied clients. That’s a recipe for VCs to turn analog dollars into digital dimes. We co-led a research project on disruption in the investment management industry, which we published as an Institutional Investor cover story, Techcrunch series, and Family Office Association white paper.
Among investors in the liquid public markets, we’ve seen a clear trend towards greater use of data and analytics. Private equity and venture capital investors are far behind. We aspire to build a best-in-class tech backbone, and are actively investing in companies serving the needs of investors in the private capital markets. More details on our thesis: Venture capitalists eating our own dog food: Using technology and analytics to make better investments
COVID-19 forced many of us to work virtually. This is particularly challenging for sales, fundraising, and business development, which definitionally require building new relationships. Years ago, our founder wrote The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online, the first business book about how to raise capital, originate investment opportunities, sign clients, and win business partners working from your home. We are excited to invest in the next generation of tools to help people (especially investment firms) sell virtually.
Our team has invested in numerous investment technology companies while working at previous VC funds: Addepar, Clarity (sold to Goldman Sachs), Drop Technologies (and its affiliate Cardify.ai), Earnest Research, Indiegogo, Republic, Stratifi, and Wonder.
We’ve also invested via prior VC funds in such fintech companies as: CardFlight, Distil Networks (acquired by Imperva), Ionic (acquired by Twilio), Estify, Flutterwave, Skip, Sure, and Socure.
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