This Week’s Vendor News

NEW & UPDATED PRODUCTS

S&P Global Market Intelligence introduces new GenAI and analytics solutions through S&P Capital IQ Pro Labs. The new suite of solutions developed through S&P Capital IQ Pro Labs includes: 1 - Transcripts Trending Topics, which enables users to uncover trends and insights from earnings call transcripts by company, sector or index over their desired time period; 2 - News Sentiment that provides quantitative sentiment signals, allowing users to uncover important company and sector insights; 3 - Transcripts Key Phrases identifies significant topics in an earnings call transcript based on semantically and contextually similar key phrases within the presentation and Q&A sections of an earnings call, allowing users to understand key themes for a company. Additionally, S&P Capital IQ Pro recently introduced the following GenAI enhancements that streamline discovery and exploration and simplify client workflows: 1 - Morning, Midday and Evening IQ Market Summaries provide users with summaries of US, European and Asian market activity pre-open, during market hours and post-close, allowing users to keep up with essential market updates, breaking news and mid-day trading insights. 2 - Transcript Summarization offers summaries of earnings call transcripts, complementing Natural Language Processing-driven sentiment scores within the AI-powered Document Viewer. 3 - S&P Global Marketplace GenAI Search enables users to query information on S&P Global datasets, related documentation and support information, facilitating seamless discovery and use of relevant offerings. ↗

DiligenceVault launches DV Assist. DiligenceVault has infused Gen AI / LLM capabilities into user workflows on the platform. DV Assist is an integrated, next generation due diligence technology for asset managers and asset allocators. Powered by DV Assist, users can use Gen AI capabilities to boost productivity and efficiency in multiple use cases – ranging from proof-reading, summarization, response regeneration, information extraction to translation and other user defined prompts. ↗

Broadridge is introducing a new integration of several asset servicing functions into a single, real-time, multi-currency platform across capital markets, wealth management, asset management and global custody. The streamlined solution enhances automation, drives processing benefits, leverages a common data ontology to optimize AI utilization and improves operational accuracy, speed and risk mitigation. Broadridge Global Asset Servicing combines over 18 components to deliver a "single gateway" data integration approach. It streamlines the management and maintenance of financial assets, facilitating their safekeeping, accurate transaction processing, and compliance with regulations. Features of this new solution include: 1 - Modular design to support onboarding and the overall experience. 2 - Ability for institutions to consolidate and reconcile data efficiently across the entire business, eliminating friction and minimizing financial and reputational risk. 3 - Simplified tech stack to help users realize straight-through processing across the asset servicing ecosphere. 4 - Consolidated, real-time data supports advanced, generative artificial intelligence to provide predictive and operational analytics, driving efficiency and real-time decision making. ↗

RepRisk has made a new platform update. Now users can access daily updated Due Diligence Scores through its Data Feed. With the Due Diligence Scores, users can screen investments, customers, and suppliers for 200+ specific risk factors. RepRisk's new Due Diligence Scores evaluate risk on a scale from 0 (low risk) to 100 (extreme risk) for individual risk factors to reflect that while companies may excel in certain areas, they face challenges in others. ↗

Rundit has introduced its new Fund Management feature, which is designed to streamline fund performance tracking for VC and PE firms. With this new tool, users can now upload, analyze, and visualize fund-level data directly within the Rundit platform, which includes: 1 - Fund Performance Status 2 - Cashflow and Net IRR 3 - Capital Account 4 - GP Fees, Carry, and Expenses. ↗

Worldfavor has launched its latest product feature: The ESG Baseline assessment. This release equips any firm to conduct an ESG baseline assessment across their entire supply chain. Providing organizations with the ability to proactively identify risks and opportunities, which builds a resilient supply chain securing further sustainable growth. The assessment provides an overview of the supply chain’s level of sustainability practices in line with global ESG best practices. The assessment includes 32 questions divided into five areas: general, environmental, social, governance, and supply chain practices. By evaluating each supplier's sustainability performance, the assessment compiles and sorts the results, ranking suppliers on a 1-5 scale from low to high performers. This streamlined process not only highlights critical areas for improvement but also guides strategic actions to strengthen sustainability and mitigate risks effectively. ↗

Dialllog has introduced Duplicates Review & Merge in the Dialllog CRM. This latest feature makes it easy to review and merge duplicate entries with just a few clicks—saving users time, improving data accuracy, and streamlining workflows. ↗

Standard Metrics has introduced its first data product: Global Benchmarking. Global Benchmarking is a new tool designed to give users a understanding of private company financial performance placed into current market context. Standard Metrics leverages aggregated and anonymized financial data from its platform to deliver relevant market insights to its users. With benchmarks covering metrics such as revenue growth rates, burn per FTE, and more, users can gain insights into their performance. For company-side users, Global Benchmarking insights are available for free. For investment firms, users can access a variety of benchmarking workflows as a paid add-on to their core subscription. ↗

The summer release of qashqade (version 24.1.0) brings a range of benefits to users, with improvements to the GP Carry module, waterfall run, data preparation, and users can now take advantage of OKTA single sign-on. This release also features several screen performance and security upgrades. The GP Carry module now includes a new screen, GP Proceeds Run, where users can define how values, such as transactions or waterfall runs, are utilized, and adapted to flow through the allocation logic, catering to different needs. Also, qashqade has enhanced the waterfall run screen to improve navigation and configuration for users. Additionally, data preparation now includes more features for transaction creation. OKTA single sign-on is also now available to integrate for identity management for clients. ↗

Salesforce launches Agentforce Partner Network. The Agentforce Partner Network is a global ecosystem of partners, like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBM, and Workday, building new third-party AI agents and agent actions for Agentforce. This new ecosystem extends Agentforce’s ability to plan across a broad network of technology and data providers to accomplish complex tasks and get more done. ↗

FINTRX has launched its Personalized Rep Data Suite to enhance the way firms recruit advisors. This new offering introduces 1.6 million additional personalized data points on independent and wirehouse advisors, providing financial recruiters with new insights to enhance their talent acquisition strategies. Additional features & capabilities include: direct outreach, localized insights, age & demographic data and firm-agnostic data. ↗

PARTNERSHIPS & INTEGRATIONS

Eleven and LemonEdge announce strategic partnership. This new partnership integrates LemonEdge’s accounting capabilities with Eleven’s platform for automating and streamlining the entire investor lifecycle, including digital subscriptions, investor onboarding and investor servicing. ↗

Finalis has welcomed Lighthouse Capital as its newest partner. Lighthouse Capital specializes in sell-side M&A advisory services for lower-middle-market companies. ↗

Itaú Private has announced its new partnership with Addepar. This strategic collaboration grants Itaú Private access to Addepar's data aggregation and performance reporting platform in Brazil, enhancing the bank's ability to deliver service and investment solutions to its advisors and clients. Through this partnership, Itaú Private clients will gain access to Addepar's tools and reports that provide insights into their global wealth—both onshore and offshore—including returns, transactions, historical data, and balances. These capabilities will enable a fully automated and personalized evaluation of each client's financial interests and needs. ↗

Ultimus LeverPoint has launched a strategic partnership with Arch to enhance private markets data management and portfolio monitoring. With the support of Arch, Ultimus will utilize a platform that automates manual tasks, enhances productivity, and maximizes the use of data and insights from asset managers, all within a seamless digital client experience. This collaboration aims to transform the data management process for asset managers, asset allocators, accountants, and funds admins, instead delivering a digital platform to save time and effectively collaborate. Ultimus and Arch are also elevating reporting standards by addressing operational hurdles with data management tools and features for more accurate access to investment data. Key offerings and highlights include: automated data retrieval, centralized data storage, real-time notifications and digital workflow and insights platform. ↗

CEEZER has entered into a strategic partnership with ERM to provide clients with streamlined access to carbon credits that complement their greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategies and sustainability goals. The collaboration represents an advancement in providing clients with transparent, effective and strategic carbon credit solutions to support their net-zero ambitions. Key partnership details include: 1 - ERM will utilize CEEZER's digital platform to create the ERM Carbon Credit Portal, offering carbon credit portfolios and portfolio management solutions to its clients. 2 - The partnership combines CEEZER's technology with ERM's range of services, including carbon market strategy, due diligence, project site visits and biodiversity, social, political or nature assessments from ERM’s local specialist teams. 3 - ERM has made a strategic investment in CEEZER, demonstrating its commitment to scaling the carbon credit market and supporting CEEZER's expansion of data-driven solutions. ↗

Diligent has launched its Diligent Market Intelligence data on Snowflake Marketplace, giving companies access to activism and proxy voting data. Diligent Market Intelligence’s availability on Snowflake Marketplace will deliver data solutions that enable seamless data access for market insights. The data sets streamline access to insights to enhance investor stewardship programs, anticipate activist activity and action governance best practices. Key benefits include: seamless integration, customizable analysis and scalability. ↗

StepStone is partnering with Thompson Street Capital Partners on the creation of a continuation fund for Gurobi Optimization, a provider of mathematical optimization software. The transaction, which provides liquidity to existing LPs, was co-led by Hamilton Lane and StepStone, supported by a diverse group of new and existing investors, and represents TSCP’s second continuation fund. The newly formed continuation fund was established to acquire Gurobi and includes access to add-on capital to drive growth initiatives, including strategic acquisitions. ↗

ClearList and Delio have formed a strategic partnership to provide investment infrastructure for private market secondaries. ClearList has partnered with Delio to provide distributors with an end-to-end toolkit that enables them to offer their clients access to private market transactions. The initial phase of this partnership utilizes the platform’s end-to-end capabilities across compliant client onboarding, a digitized subscription processes, custom transaction workflows and automated portfolio reporting. Both firms are now working together to build interconnected channels and onboard sub-white-label platforms to streamline secondary product distribution into ClearList’s partners, all while enhancing the efficiency of their operational processes for sharing products within their network. This integration provides a secure and streamlined experience for partners alongside offering support in areas such as digital client experience implementation, investment structuring and liquidity solutions. ↗

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors has expanded their strategic partnership with SEI across technology, operations, asset management, and advisor services for KoCAA’s individual and institutional wealth management business. An existing client leveraging SEI’s fund administration services, KoCAA is now moving more than $500 million in AUM to the SEI Wealth Platform. With more than $27 billion in AUM as of June 30, 2024, KoCAA specializes in mutual funds, private wealth management, philanthropic solutions, and more. ↗

Canoe Intelligence and fundcraft have formed a strategic integration partnership set to streamline fund administration throughout Europe. By integrating Canoe’s proprietary AI-based technology into fundcraft’s end-to-end fund operations platform, asset managers will benefit from seamless data integration with Canoe’s open API for automated document management, enhanced data accuracy and transparency, and increased operational efficiency and productivity. This integration will be particularly beneficial for fundcraft clients managing funds of funds on the platform. Clients will gain automatic access to documents from hundreds of LP portals, eliminating the time-consuming process of manual data extraction. Canoe’s system will automatically ingest, classify, and extract key financial data from documents before pushing the information directly into fundcraft’s end-to-end operations platform. ↗

CAIS has expanded its offerings of alternative investment strategies from alternative investment managers. New managers that have introduced strategies on CAIS Marketplace in 2024 include BlackRock, Blackstone, FS Investments, Golub Capital, Hines, Kayne Anderson, Stonepeak, and T. Rowe Price/Oak Hill Advisors, with Apollo, Ares Management, Bain Capital, Blue Owl, Davidson Kempner Capital Management, Franklin Templeton, KKR, Nuveen, Partners Group, Reverence Capital Partners, and Vista Equity Partners among the managers that have expanded the number of their strategies available on the platform this year. Featured strategies encompass a broad range of alternative asset classes, including private equity, private debt, hedge funds, and real estate. Additionally, they offer wealth-centric structures such as interval funds, BDCs, and non-traded REITs. ↗

Allvue Systems has been selected by Guggenheim Investments to deliver Portfolio Management and Research Management solutions. Guggenheim Investments has adopted Allvue to enhance its investment infrastructure and streamline operations, after identifying a need to transform legacy systems and processes. Allvue helps firms like Guggenheim Investments to manage and leverage data from a variety of sources, including spreadsheets, internally developed tools, and other technologies. By unifying data sets and eliminating manual tasks, Allvue’s platform enhances operational efficiency and supports the automation of time-intensive processes. ↗

Dynamo welcomes Trinity Ventures as a new client. Trinity Ventures has joined forces with Dynamo to leverage its accounting software solution. The strategic selection of Dynamo will help to enhance Trinity Ventures’ financial operations, streamline their accounting procedures, and improve investor reporting. Key features include a fully integrated proprietary general ledger, automated capital calls and distributions, waterfall calculations, and a flexible reporting engine. These capabilities enable Trinity Ventures to streamline their fund accounting processes and gain critical insights for more informed decision-making. ↗

Direxion, a provider of tradeable and thematic ETFs, has selected SS&C ALPS Distributors to provide medallion distribution services to their ETF and mutual fund range. SS&C ALPS Distributors will act as the underwriter and distributor for issuance, redemption and distribution. SS&C will also handle FINRA compliance and continuing education requirements, review marketing and sales literature, and consult and support Direxion funds' distribution model and strategy. ↗

iCapital will provide its technology to HSBC Global Private Banking. The solution will be fully integrated into HSBC’s platform to digitalize the private market investment experience for its relationship managers, investment counsellors and operations teams. Initially deployed in Hong Kong and Singapore, the solution is intended to be gradually expanded to more markets. iCapital’s end-to-end enterprise solution will improve the efficiency and digitalize the client experience of private market investing for HSBC Global Private Banking advisors and their clients. ↗

OFFICE & PERSONNEL

Apex Group appoints Colette Leong-Son as Head of Apex Invest Events. In her new role, Leong-Son will develop the global events strategy and oversee the delivery of Apex Invest Events. She brings over 30 years of experience in launching, running and growing industry events. Prior to joining Apex Invest Events, Leong-Son was Managing Director, Events at Infopro Digital, a financial services media and data business comprising seven digital brands including Risk.net, Central Banking, Insurance Post and Waters Technology. ↗

Stavtar Solutions hires Head of Customer Success and Director of Sales Engineering. AJ Mueller has accepted a new position as Head of Customer Success. Mueller spent the last three years at Ion, most recently as the Head of Client Experience Automation & Head of TIM Trade Idea Platform. Dan Clarke has taken on the role of Director of Sales Engineering. Before joining Stavtar, Clarke was the VP - Head of Sales Engineering NA, Asset Management at Broadridge. He has also spent time at SunGard and FIS. ↗

Inrate has welcomed Saurabh Srivastava as Head of Sustainability Data & Ratings. Srivastava has over 22 years of leadership experience in financial services, ESG data, and sustainable finance at firms like CRISIL/S&P Global and Morningstar-Sustainalytics. In his new role, Srivastava will lead Inrate’s efforts to: 1 - Develop regulatory-aligned products to meet the evolving needs of institutional investors.
2 - Leverage AI to scale its data collection and analysis capabilities. 3 - Pioneer predictive ESG analytics, enabling clients to anticipate future sustainability trends and risks. 4 - Proactively enhance its impact ratings to integrate new data sources and research. ↗

Bite Investments has appointed Florus Plantenga as Head of Client Advisory. Plantenga spent the past 30 years in investment banking, 20 years of which, focused exclusively on the alternative asset management sector. He has held a variety of senior roles within the financial sponsor coverage teams at investment banks, most recently heading up European financial sponsor coverage at Lincoln International. His prior experience includes working at firms like Houlihan Lokey, Société Generale, JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch. Plantenga joins Bite as part of an initiative to scale its global sales team. ↗

Jason Meklinsky has joined IDR as Chief Revenue Officer. Meklinsky has joined IDR's Executive Committee and brings over 25 years of C-level leadership and business development experience from global firms such as UBS, Bear Stearns, HedgeServ, and Apex Group. In this newly created role, Meklinsky will spearhead IDR’s commercial strategy, focusing on business development and marketing initiatives while scaling the sales team in the US to support the firm’s growth goals. ↗

Position Green is expanding. In early September, Position Green welcomed 40 new talents from across the globe to the Position Green team. ↗

ShareVault introduces its new CEO, Steve Monterroso. Monterroso, who has been with ShareVault for seven years, has been promoted to the position of Chief Executive Officer and the current CEO, Richard Andersen, will continue to serve the company as Executive Chairman of the Board. Monterroso has over two decades of leadership experience in SaaS companies. His previous positions at ShareVault include: Chief Revenue Officer & Interim Chief Marketing Officer, Head of Sales and Strategic Advisor. ↗

FIS has opened its new office at One Vanderbilt, New York. ↗

Apex Group has appointed Bill Jangra as a new pensions trustee. Jangra brings over 25 years of experience in professional trusteeship, pension management, administration, and governance, both in-house and outsourced, as well as an understanding of employee benefits. He is accredited as a Trustee in both the UK and Ireland. Before joining Apex Group, Jangra held roles as a professional trustee at Law Debenture and served as head of pensions for Nuffield Health, where he played a role in overseeing and managing pension scheme fiduciary obligations and stewardship. ↗

SimCorp has introduced Jason Pietrafitta as its Managing Director, Head of Customer Success for Asia Pacific, based in Singapore. Pietrafitta brings over 20 years of experience in FinTech, driving business growth and leading cross-functional teams across APAC, Latin America, and North America. Before joining SimCorp, Pietrafitta was a MD, Strategic Accounts at Charles River Development. ↗

Linnovate Partners has appointed Alessio Polastri as Director of Legal and Compliance. Based in the Singapore office, Polastri will lead the legal and compliance teams, overseeing daily legal tasks, merger and acquisition transactions, as well as regulatory and compliance matters for the firm. Alessio brings over 15 years of experience in the legal industry, which includes involvement in multiple mergers and acquisitions and finance transactions across South-East Asia and Europe. ↗

ERM appoints Victoria Bell as interim Chief Financial Officer. Most recently Bell worked as CFO of medical diagnostics group Unilabs, while her previous experience includes senior finance roles with companies including Kantar Group, Centrient Pharmaceuticals and Concardis. She has also worked in investment banking at Société Générale, JPMorgan and Cazenove. ↗

IQ-EQ appoints Peter van Opstal as Commercial Director for the Netherlands. In his new role, van Opstal will lead the Dutch sales and relationship management team and be responsible for driving IQ-EQ’s commercial strategy across segments, retention and expansion of customer base. He will also take a seat on the Dutch management team. Prior to joining IQ-EQ, van Opstal was Commercial Director and Management Team member at Vistra in Amsterdam (formerly Orangefield).With over 16 years of experience in the corporate and fund services industry both in Luxembourg and in the Netherlands, Peter has specialized in serving asset managers and large corporations. ↗

VENDOR RESEARCH & WHITEPAPERS

Xpedition has a new article, "How AI Can Enhance Financial Services". In this article, Xpedition states that the adoption of AI in financial services is underpinned by three distinct elements of innovation: machine learning, non-traditional data, and automation and explains why. ↗

Hyperscience has a new blog, "Mastering Audit Logging for Enterprise Software". In this post, Hyperscience discusses the features of Enhanced Audit Logging. ↗

PortF has a new blog, "Unmasking ESG Greenwashing: Lessons for Investors and Professionals". In this post, PortF discusses real-world examples of ESG greenwashing at different levels—firm, institutional, and product—and highlights what stakeholders should be on the lookout for. ↗

AWARDS

Oxane Partners has won three US portfolio management technology awards. Oxane Partner's Panorama solution has been recognized with three US awards - 'Best Portfolio Management System of the Year' at the PE Wire US Credit Awards, and 'Best Portfolio Management Software' as well as the 'Best Data Management Solution' at the HFM US Services Awards. ↗

73 Strings has won the Technology Innovation of the Year Award at the Private Equity Wire US Credit Awards 2024. ↗

Acuity Knowledge Partners has been voted as the winner in the "Middle Office Services of the Year" category in the Private Equity Wire US Credit Awards 2024. These awards recognize fund performance and service provider excellence across credit funds. ↗