This Week’s Vendor News

NEW & UPDATED PRODUCTS

FactSet has announced the beta release of its latest AI advancement, FactSet Mercury, a large language model-based knowledge agent to power modern digital workflows and enhance fact-based decision making. With FactSet Mercury, users can access FactSet’s financial fundamentals and pricing data, along with bank and branch regulatory data through an integrated suite of GenAI tools surfaced in a single chat interface. New features of the chatbot include Chart Creator, which empowers a user's next best action by using natural language to create a pitch-ready chart. ↗

eFront has launched eFront Copilot, which is a generative AI for private markets and is currently available via private preview within eFront Insight. Institutional investors can now transform prompts into data visualizations and usable investment intelligence. ↗

Tegus has added two new features to its platform; management checks and panel calls. Tegus panel calls provide access to thematic insights from industry experts, conducted within Tegus’ compliance framework. Panel call transcripts are also included in the Tegus platform license. Additionally, Tegus has a new on-demand library of management diligence reports to gain an understanding of management teams and company culture. ↗

KEY ESG has announced a couple recent product updates. KEY ESG has refined its Scope 3 carbon calculation capabilities to enable users to calculate their company's footprint with enhanced accuracy and precision. It also delivered a project to improve its data analytics and dashboards. ↗

daappa has announced two new updates to its platform. daappa has launched Extractor AI, a new AI-driven PDF data extraction tool. daappa has enhanced its carried interest functionality in daappa Core. This update introduces an intuitive Excel add-in feature, streamlining the fund distribution and fee session calculations. ↗

Dialllog has announced a new feature on its platform. Highlights from this new feature include: effortless fundraising; streamline campaigns for one company, integrated workflows; connect fundraising with other key processes and enhanced collaboration and centralize efforts for better teamwork. ↗

Hyperscience has announced a new release that includes 3 new updates to its platform. The first is the ability to tackle complex use cases with GPT and Llama integrations. Next is a new Knowledge Store to aid keyer productivity and improve accuracy. Lastly, there is a new redesigned, user-friendly dashboard that brings clarity and understanding to AI investments. ↗

SESAMm has announced a couple new features to its platform over 2023. These new features include 4 new languages: Albanian, Serbian, Croatian, and Hungarian. SESAmm has also identified 600,000 new ESG controversies this year. ↗

Markerr has announced the launch of its AI Data Scientist. The AI Data Scientist, integrated into Markerr Data Studio, brings accessibility to predictive analytics in real estate. The AI Data Scientist represents a use case for generative AI by transforming complex model outputs into digestible insights for non-technical users. ↗

Attio has announced the addition of 7 newly updated features on its platform. These updated features are: updated email editor, subject line variables in emails, improved filter editing experience in automations, variables inside filter automation blocks, redesigned command palette, dedicated search and calendar event pages. ↗

DEAL ACTIVITY

Moonfare has closed its first co-investments fund, Moonfare Co-investment Fund I, at €58m. The fund raised 16% above its target size in less than 12 months, receiving commitments from 320 investors across 21 countries. The MCFI portfolio will focus on buyout deals across diverse private equity sponsors, geographies, and sectors. Its assets are sourced and selected by the fund’s dedicated investment team. ↗

PARTNERSHIPS & INTEGRATIONS

Apex Group have announced their strategic partnership in Tokeny, an enterprise-grade tokenization solutions provider. This collaboration is aimed at ushering institutions into the tokenized financial market. With Tokeny, Apex allows their clients to tokenize assets on the blockchain, thereby reducing operational costs and increasing revenues by reaching broader investors compliantly and seamlessly. ↗

Passthrough has announced its new partnership with GP Fund Solutions. Through this partnership, GPFS aims to provide streamlined onboarding for GPs to improve fundraising and enhance the subscription process. ↗

Forge has announced its partnership with Accuidity, an institutional private market index fund, to launch an investable index tracking the performance of late-stage, venture-backed companies. Accuidity will seek to replicate the newly created Forge index in early 2024. ↗

Dasseti and Nasdaq have announced a new partnership. This partnership allows asset managers to streamline their data distribution process, leveraging Nasdaq eVestment data within Dasseti's DDQ/RFP response platform. Key highlights include: the ability to avoid duplicating effort and ensure consistency between Nasdaq's eVestment data and DDQ and RFP response data. You can also submit your latest firm and strategy data to Nasdaq eVestment and automatically have it available in the Dasseti Question and Answer bank. And additionally, the ability to leverage AI/NLP technologies to include Nasdaq eVestment data in proposed responses to new requests. ↗

SS&C Tier1 and Global Source Direct have partnered to create a new end-to-end research platform. This collaboration aims to to create all-in-one workflows designed to optimize the research process and streamline team collaboration, from start to finish. Tier1 and Global Source Direct will now provide advanced contact and list management features, fueled by preference-backed data sets, within an institutive content creation and distribution portal, to enhance the research distribution and consumption experience for analysts and readers. ↗

Canoe Intelligence and Deviate Consulting have formalized their strategic consulting partnership to support alternative investment solutions for family offices. Canoe and Deviate will collaborate together to support family offices through the process of implementing Canoe’s technology. For family offices seeking dedicated support to facilitate a new technology project, this partnership is designed to supplement their internal resources and capabilities as it relates to technology selection and adoption. For mutual clients, Deviate will become an extension of the client’s team, liaising with Canoe’s client success team to support them through the change. ↗

SimCorp and Alloy, an infrastructure and technology provider for digital assets, have entered into a strategic partnership to assist SimCorp clients with managing digital asset investments. The partnership will extend past standard digital asset broker connectivity, enabling mutual clients to manage digital assets holistically within SimCorp’s front-to-back investment management platform. The solution will provide joint clients with one single source for traditional, alternative and digital asset classes. ↗

ERM’s ESG Fusion has forged a data partnership with SESAMm. ERM’s ESG Fusion, has now integrated data from SESAMm into its existing universe of proprietary and third-party data sources. With this new data source, ESG Fusion now screens an additional 20BN+ documents and 4M+ sources for ESG-related adverse events and controversies. It also expands ESG Fusion’s coverage to 100+ languages across most geographies, including emerging markets. ↗

ValueWorks has integrated with Microsoft Business Central. This partnership combines ValueWorks' AI and machine learning with Microsoft Business Central's versatile cloud ERP. This integration helps streamline business operations, enhance data-driven decision-making, and provides financial management solutions. ↗

mnAi and Female Founder Finance (FFF) have partnered to drive innovation and empower female entrepreneurs in business and technology. Both organizations will work together to support female entrepreneurs in the industry. ↗

Broadridge partnered with Banc of California as their Financial Printer & Proxy Agent in their merger with Pac West. The combined bank emerges as the third-largest bank headquartered in California and one of the nation’s premier relationship-focused business banks. ↗

C2S Bouygues has chosen to partner with Sweep to support its clients in their data collection and reporting initiatives. This partnership aims to strengthen C2S Bouygues' advisory position with clients to define their carbon trajectory, from optimizing emissions to meeting the requirements of all stakeholders. ↗

St. James’s Place selects ION-owned Backstop Solutions’ Research Management Software for its fund due diligence. Backstop's RMS, integration solutions, and services facilitate SJP’s technology strategy to move to one investment research management platform by providing a single source of information. Backstop Solutions will enable SJP to consolidate its qualitative and quantitative data into a unified platform across all asset classes. ↗

Northern Trust has been appointed to provide integrated trading solutions to Waverton Investment Management. Waverton is an independent investment manager providing services for private and professional clients. The agreement also sees two Waverton traders join Northern Trust. ↗

TMF Group has adopted Broadridge’s Sentry PM to enhance its private debt and Collateralised Loan Obligation service capabilities. This partnership will enable TMF Group to enhance its private debt and CLO services businesses by reducing operational risks and allowing investment managers to make more informed investment decisions. Broadridge’s platform will also enable TMF Group to launch a new service offering for CLO administration, which it plans to bring to market in 2024. ↗

Carlyle Private Wealth has joined +SUBSCRIBE's alternative investment platform. Carlyle has joined +SUBSCRIBE's platform for private wealth products, including Carlyle Tactical Private Credit Fund, Carlyle AlpInvest Private Markets Fund and Carlyle Credit Solutions, to help ease the onboarding process. ↗

IQ-EQ has been appointed by AM Green to provide full corporate administration and SPV services. AM Green is a new green energy platform based in India. ↗

CastleArk Management has selected SEI’s Advisors’ Inner Circle Fund Trust to launch first active ETF. CastleArk Management is a $3 billion Chicago-based investment manager specializing in active equity strategies in domestic and non-US markets. The AIC series trust enables investment organizations to rapidly launch and grow mutual funds, exchange traded funds, interval, and tender offer funds without having to build their own fund operating infrastructure. ↗

HIRING & PERSONNEL

SimCorp has announced the appointment of Dean McIntyre as the Head of Global Commercial, a brand new role in the company. McIntyre will be responsible for a spectrum of sales enablement activities, including developing sales training, content creation and supporting SimCorp’s growth ambitions. McIntyre has been with SimCorp for almost a full year and was at FactSet prior to this. ↗

Affinity has recently welcomed its new CTO, Dominique Simoneau-Ritchie, to the company. Before joining Affinity, Simoneau-Ritchie was Vice President Of Engineering at Wealthsimple. ↗

Freyda has announced that Hiba Al Dalaty is its new Front End Engineer. Before joining Freyda, Al Dalaty was a Software Developer & Co-Head Of Technology at Hatless Studios. ↗

Preqin has announced that Paul Sinthunon has recently joined the company as VP of Research Insights with a focus on Asset Allocation. Before joining Preqin, Sinthunon was a Strategic Advisor at Datos Insights. ↗

OneTrust has announced that Michael Bush has joined the firm as Sales Director, Strategic. Previously, Bush spent 7 years as VP of Sales at Darktrace, a cyber security company. ↗

Affinity has announced the addition of 7 new hires over the last month. Kyle Lindholm is the new Customer Success Manager, Growth. Danielle Lazarov is a Strategic Account Executive. Lexi Peck is the new Content Marketing Manager. Michael Marraccini is a Senior Account Executive. Rob Davies is a new Onboarding Manager. Thomas Chase is a Senior Customer Success Manager | Strategic Accounts. And lastly, Tanya Ralliaran is a new Software Engineer. ↗

Andrew Parsons has joined AlphaSense as its new Director, Revenue Operations. Previously Parsons was Director, Commercial Solutions at S&P Global. ↗

Private Equity News has announced its ‘50 Most Influential in Private Equity’ list and Moonfare's Founder & CEO Steffen Pauls has made the list for the second year in a row. ↗

G2 has announced 2 new additions to its Senior Leadership Team. Chad Gold Joins G2 as its first-ever CFO and Eric Gilpin is G2’s Chief Revenue Officer. With over 20 years of experience in corporate finance, Gold joins G2 from Salesloft. Prior to joining G2, Gilpin was at Upwork. ↗

VENDOR WHITEPAPERS

Alkymi has a new blog, "Using LLMs confidently in financial services workflows". Alkymi feels that conversations about LLMs and generative AI often touch on approaches to maintain data privacy and security standards, particularly in financial services. Alkymi also believes that another equally important topic is accuracy and traceability. LLMs can occasionally generate incorrect responses, or “hallucinations,” and it’s important that any product using LLMs incorporate layered strategies to reduce hallucinations. ↗

Katipult has published a new blog, "The Rise of Private Capital Markets and the Imperative for Financial Institutions to Adapt". In this piece, Katipult states in recent years, private capital markets have emerged as the dominant force for industry growth. The traditional appeal of public markets faces competition from a growing preference for private investments from investors and issuers, signalling a long-term trend that could see public markets wane in significance over the next 5 to 10 years.
Katipult feels that the once-rigid boundaries between public and private investments are blurring, ushering in an era of enhanced investor solicitation flexibility, secondary liquidity, and technological advancements to improve transaction efficiency and transparency. ↗

N2 has a new blog, "Revolutionising VC Deal Sourcing: How Data-Driven Strategies Overcome Cognitive Biases". In this blog N2 delves into the various cognitive biases that have traditionally influenced venture capital decision-making, understanding where blind spots exist. ↗

Arcesium has a new blog, "In AI We Trust?" This piece discusses how generative AI increases the importance of data quality and governance. Arcesium feels that if data quality is the foundation of AI, data governance is the framework that supports the technology. ↗

DiligenceVault has published a new blog, "Give the Gift of a Merry Asset Manager DDQ this Holiday Season". In this Christmas piece, DiligenceVault provides a list of best practices when creating an asset manager Due Diligence Questionnaire. ↗

As businesses race to deploy new solutions leveraging artificial intelligence, a new study from FIS suggests they may be out of lockstep with their customers. The survey, which explored consumers’ trust and understanding of GenAI and how it is used by financial services providers, revealed that despite the growing number of use cases from leading technology companies, over 71% of American respondents agree that GenAI makes them nervous. ↗

AlphaSense has a new whitepaper, "The Expert Insights Flywheel: Maximize Return on Your Time". In this whitepaper, AlphaSense discusses how, when integrating AI-driven efficiencies with expert insights, you can maximize your primary investment research to its full potential. ↗

ShareVault has a couple of new blogs. The first is: "Best Practices for Conducting M&A Due Diligence". In this blog ShareVault discusses 3 VDR features, that they believe, ensure M&A success. ↗

ShareVault’s other new blog is: "Optimizing Enterprise Data Management with Virtual Data Rooms". In this piece, ShareVault discusses how in the digital age, the volume of data generated and processed by businesses has skyrocketed. As a result, enterprises face an ever-increasing challenge in managing and safeguarding their sensitive information.To meet these challenges VDRs have emerged as powerful tools for optimizing enterprise data management, enhancing security, and streamlining collaboration. ↗

FundCount has a new blog, "Navigating the Complexities of Family Office Management". FundCount states that wealth preservation is a critical aspect of Family Office Management, which requires a comprehensive and tailored approach. The goal is not only to grow the family’s wealth but also to ensure it is preserved for future generations. This involves a spectrum of expertise and strategies that are customized to the family’s unique needs and objectives and are discussed more in this blog post. ↗

Novata has a new article, "Centring portfolio engagement in PE firms’ ESG strategy". In this piece Novata states that private equity firms can find value in integrating ESG at various stages of the investment lifecycle, from pre-investment screenings and due diligence to ownership and exit. However, the ownership phase provides the greatest opportunity for ESG integration, given the high level of engagement between a GP and its portfolio companies and the typical value creation-driven private equity model. ↗

SS&C has a new blog, "How Private Equity Firms Can Make the Most of Working Capital Finance". SS&C believes that working capital finance is changing. Banks are more reluctant to provide loans, and entities like hedge funds, private equity funds and insurers are stepping up to fill this void. Unbound by strict capital banking ratios, non-traditional lenders are starting to see how capital finance drives value with returns that are often upwards of 10%. Despite this big shift, there are some significant obstacles private equity firms and other non-traditional lenders are facing that can block them from getting the most out of offering capital financing. ↗

Private Equity Info has a new blog, "Private equity investments shift upmarket on cash flow". PEI states that for years, the private equity industry has been moving down market, as firms invest in smaller deals in the middle market and lower middle market. However, PEI's most recent review of data suggests that trend is reversing. ↗

S&P Global has posted a new blog, "Artificial Intelligence: What Are The Key Credit Risks And Opportunities Of AI?" S&P feels that AI's potential to replace, transform, and regenerate human-work processes promises significant efficiency and productivity gains. While this could be a boom for companies' financial and operating performance it comes with dangers linked to data privacy, cyber security, and AI safety that could exacerbate operational and reputational risks if not properly governed and managed. ↗

Chronograph has a new blog, "Harmonizing Private Equity Financial Data for Bottom-Up and Fund-Level Analysis". Chronograph feels that private equity firms can enhance financial data access and quality by using portfolio monitoring technology built on a flexible data model. Unlike traditional template-based systems that require rigid, upfront data harmonization, flexible data modeling offers a harmonization layer post-data collection. This allows firms to access all reported metrics from their portfolio companies, maintaining metric granularity and also applying a harmonization layer that streamlines fund-level analysis. ↗

AWARDS

Tegus has won two awards at Comparably’s Best Company Awards. Teagus won for Best Company CEOs & Best Company Culture Awards. Comparably is a workplace culture and compensation monitoring employee review platform. ↗

Winners of the Global Brand Awards 2023 from our Vendor Profiles database include:

Bite, who won for Fastest Growing Investor Software Solutions Brand.
Linnovate Partners, who won for Best Fintech Asset Service Solutions Provider.
SS&C Advent, who won for Best Technology Transformation in Wealth Management. ↗

Financial Services Review has named Domos FS as one of the 2023 Top 5 Fintech Solutions Companies in UK. ↗