This Week’s Vendor News

NEW & UPDATED PRODUCTS

SEI unveils alternative investment product marketplace through SEI Access. SEI Access is an enhanced platform, which provide an end-to-end investment experience and access for wealth managers and financial advisors. SEI Access is broadly available to all registered investment advisors, wealth managers, and broker-dealers in the US, subject to applicable eligibility and regulatory requirements. SEI Access features: 1 - A digital marketplace and education forum, where advisors can evaluate funds and make informed decisions using consistent fund attributes. 2 - Integrated subscription processing capabilities, enabling execution and investment management directly from the marketplace using the platform’s workflow that combines electronic subscription documents, proprietary firm paperwork, custodian forms, and e-signature tools to help ensure accurate transaction processing. 3 - Value for fund managers with expanded distribution opportunities across a network of independent wealth managers, accelerated subscription-to-funding via paperless processing, and simplified workflows to increase adoption and engagement among advisors. ↗

Allvue Systems launches Credit Research Solutions, designed to streamline the credit research process and provide investment teams with efficiency and insight. The integrated research and portfolio management offering supports scalable monitoring, data integrations, and strategic portfolio decision-making for diversified investment firms and is part of Allvue’s Enterprise Research Solutions. Credit Research Solutions is purpose-built to address the investment complexities of syndicated loans, direct lending, high-yield bonds, and investment-grade bonds, as well as other public and private asset classes. By eliminating fragmented research data and manual processes, Allvue enhances decision-making and drives productivity across the credit lifecycle. Key Features of Allvue’s Credit Research Solutions include: 1 - Centralized Research Hub, 2 - Workflow Automation – Streamlines data collection, risk scoring, and multi-faceted approval processes to reduce manual efforts, 3 - Collaboration Tools – Enables real-time updates and improved communication among team members, 4 - Actionable Insights – Leverages analytics and dashboards to provide a view of market opportunities and portfolio risks. ↗

Salesforce launches Agentforce 2dx. Agentforce 2dx enables Agentforce to engage proactively, be triggered on changes in data, operate autonomously in the background of any business process, and interact with users across any user interface. Organizations can now integrate autonomous agents into their existing data systems, business logic, and user interfaces, enabling agents to anticipate business needs and improving efficiency, agility, and scale. Agentforce 2dx also marks the release of a new set of low-code and pro-code tools for Salesforce developers to configure, test, and deploy Agentforce, paired with advanced analytics to help teams monitor, debug, and optimize agent performance with real-time data and guidance. Salesforce also unveiled AgentExchange, a marketplace and community for Agentforce that is built into Salesforce. ↗

Private Equity Info unveils new updates on its platform. The first new feature is an enhancement for search and filters. Users can refine portfolio company results with a new private equity firm filter, multi-select search criteria, and other new filtering & sorting tools. Also, the ability to identify relationships between investment banks and portfolio company transactions is now. Additionally, users can now search the database for law firms involved in M&A deals and identify relationships. ↗

Arch updates website, which reflects on the first seven years of the company. Every word on the website has been changed, and Arch has added graphics of what it does and includes images of some of the people who work there. The Arch website can be found at: https://arch.co/ ↗

Ideals launches new platform updates. These new enhancements are: 1 - Enhance collaboration with comments and threads: an enhanced PDF viewer allows users to annotate and collaborate directly within their documents. Key benefits: 1 - Flexible note visibility: highlight text, add notes, and categorize notes as Public, Group, or Private, with full control over editing, resolving, or deleting comments. 2 - Threaded discussions: reply directly to notes and keep conversations organized with collapsible threads. 3 - Centralized note panel: access all comments in a single view, grouped by document and page. 4 - Advanced search and filtering: find specific notes with advanced filters for author, type, or creation date. Another new feature is session self-management, whereby users can remotely sign out of other active sessions and maintain control over their account security. Ideals has also introduced new tools to simplify user and group permission management, making it easy for admins to assign, search, and navigate permissions efficiently. This enhancement ensures your team stays aligned, making document collaboration efficient. ↗

FNEX launches the FNEX Alternatives Market. The FNEX Alternatives Market provides wealth managers and financial advisors with access to curated alternative investments. What are the benefits of the FNEX Alternatives Market? 1 - Curated Investment Options, 2 - Support for Wealth Managers, 3 - Hard-to-Find Investment Opportunities, 4 - Due Diligence: FNEX provides access to independent, third-party due diligence reports, providing wealth managers with unbiased analysis of the strategies they are presenting their clients. ↗

ROYC Group has enhanced its fund life cycle management for a more efficient experience for private equity general partners and their clients. What is new? 1 - improved investor communications, 2- distribution network expansion to benefit GPs, 3 - enhanced PRIIP KID Automation and Accessibility. ↗

Dakota launches social media platform on Instagram. @allthingsfundraising is designed to keep users informed on fundraising trends, investment intelligence, and market insights across all channels and asset classes. What will be included on the platform: 1 - investment industry updates, 2 - fundraising insights across private equity, venture capital, real estate and hedge funds, 3 - investment strategies tailored for today’s markets, 4 - market trends and best practices. ↗

S&P Global enhances its RiskGauge and Credit Analytics corporate entity coverage. Powered by proprietary insights and analytics, the enhanced solution also offers configurable and downloadable credit risk assessment reports to provide a comprehensive picture of credit risk exposure. Key features include: 1 - RiskGauge score, a combination of financial, business and market risk, for more than 400 million companies. 2 - Up-to-date corporate information including company financials across developed and developing markets. 3 - Early Warning Framework for potential credit risk deterioration, and economic and geopolitical hot spots. 4 - Extensive workflow, data and analytics features for Non-Financial and Financial Corporates via Credit Analytics and RiskGauge Desktop platforms. 5 - RiskGauge reports with historical performance, financials, firmographics and developments. 6 - Data quality assurance via automated data audits and quality checks. ↗

ROYC Group also unveils additional platform updates from the last month. These new features include: 1 - enhanced access right management, 2 - centralized multimedia hub, 3 - investment access management and 4 - new notification module. ↗

DEAL ACTIVITY

BlackRock completes its acquisition of Preqin. This strategic transaction strengthens BlackRock’s ability to serve clients’ whole portfolios, across public and private markets, by combining investment, technology, and data solutions in one platform. Starting now, Preqin will extend BlackRock’s suite of technology offerings, with clients continuing to use Preqin as a standalone solution, while joint customers will benefit immediately from product integrations, such as access to Preqin benchmarks within Aladdin. Over time, BlackRock will integrate Preqin’s proprietary data and research tools with Aladdin and eFront. Following the transaction, Preqin founder Mark O’Hare has joined BlackRock as a Vice Chair. ↗

FactSet acquires LogoIntern. LogoIntern is a workflow automation tool designed to simplify and speed up logo tasks for bankers. With LogoIntern, junior bankers no longer need to add, organize, and format logos in pitch decks. This acquisition strengthens FactSet's commitment to boosting productivity and deal capacity for junior bankers. ↗

Morningstar expands Private Credit offerings with new acquisitions, which brings Pitchbook into the portfolio monitoring space. Morningstar has acquired Lumonic, a private credit portfolio monitoring and management platform. This acquisition allows private credit investment professionals to manage and analyze their portfolios alongside PitchBook’s private capital data. Lumonic will operate as a subsidiary of PitchBook, which will provide support and resources while allowing Lumonic to deliver solutions that modernize credit portfolio workflows. ↗

Verdian Insights acquires Compliance Week from Wilmington plc. Compliance Week is a source of compliance and governance insights. Compliance Week equips professionals with the knowledge, network, and tools to navigate evolving governance, risk, and compliance challenges. ↗

PARTNERSHIPS & INTEGRATIONS

RBC Investor Services and FundGuard partner on derivatives platform. This collaboration aims to provide clients with improved efficiency and flexibility in managing derivatives. ↗

SimCorp implements new front-office solution for Ampega, a German asset manager and investment fund provider with over EUR 180B in AUM. By leveraging SimCorp's front-to-back solution, SimCorp One, Ampega has streamlined its system landscape and reduced the total cost of ownership. Ampega has been a SimCorp client for 20 years, utilizing its middle and back-office capabilities. Recently, Ampega decided to rationalize their systems and partner with SimCorp for a complete front-to-back implementation project. The main focus was to bring all core functionalities into just one system. ↗

Finalis partners with Wraith Capital Advisory. Wraith Capital is a boutique investment bank specializing in sell-side advisory for privately held businesses in the lower middle market and SMB sector. ↗

i2i Logic is partnering with RelPro to enhance commercial banking sales. Together, both companies will streamline the sales journey. RelPro's company and contact intelligence will provide efficiency to prospecting and helps bankers connect with decision-makers while i2i Logic equips them with insights and conversations that drive business growth. ↗

Fireflies and Affinity.co have introduced their new integration, designed to eliminate tedious data entry and keep CRMs updated. What is included: 1 - Create new contacts for meeting participants not already in your CRM, 2 - Map meeting notes under the right people and organizations, 3 - Create reminders based on meeting action items, 4 - Maintain a chronological record of all conversations. ↗

Atominvest partners with Paragon Partners. Paragon is an independent private equity firm with €2.4 billion in AUM. Paragon is utilizing Atominvest's solutions for portfolio management including automating data collections, enhancing performance tracking, and improving reporting capabilities. ↗

Corporate Venture Capital fund has chosen 73 Strings for portfolio valuation and monitoring. 73 Strings' AI-powered platform will help Corporate Venture Capital gain insights into their portfolio, streamline workflows, and make data-driven decisions with confidence. 73 Strings is helping Corporate Venture Capital with: 1 - Limited Transparency: Difficulty in maintaining consistent communication with their third-party valuers. 2 - Data Inconsistencies: Errors discovered in valuations from their third-party consultancy provider, leading to concerns about accuracy & reliability. ↗

Lord Abbett selects SUBSCRIBE to broaden advisor access to alternative investments. Lord Abbett, a credit manager with approximately $220B in aum, has joined the SUBSCRIBE platform, to help with its commitment to digitally enhance its operations. ↗

F-Prime chooses Standard Metrics for portfolio metrics. By eliminating manual workflows, automatically structuring key data, and contextualizing themes with global benchmarking, Standard Metrics will equip F-Prime’s investment and finance teams with a centralized source of truth for portfolio metrics. This will enable F-Prime to confidently manage their data while focusing on identifying new opportunities and driving due diligence. With Standard Metrics, F-Prime aims to elevate its data collection and benchmarking capabilities while enhancing operational efficiency and reporting in venture capital. ↗

Brickwood Asset Management picks Northern Trust for asset servicing solutions. Northern Trust has been appointed by Brickwood Asset Management to provide whole office asset servicing solutions spanning front, middle and back-office functions. Northern Trust, in partnership with Equity Data Science, will help Brickwood digitize, institutionalize and optimize its investment process, as well as outsourced trading via integrated trading solutions. Additional services include fund administration, global custody, client reporting and performance management. ↗

Dimensional Fund Advisors renews transfer agent relationship with SS&C. SS&C will provide transfer agency services for Dimensional's open-ended investment company funds, which manage GBP 8.7B in assets. Dimensional has leveraged SS&C GIDS' services for over a decade across many funds and markets. In 2023, Dimensional renewed its contract with SS&C to service its '40 Act mutual funds lineup in the US. This new announcement extends this service agreement between the firms in the UK. ↗

OFFICE & PERSONNEL

Crunchbase welcomes Kate Long as its new VP of Marketing. Before joining Crunchbase, Long was the Senior Vice President, Marketing at ASSURANCE IQ. She also spent time at PitchBook Data, Expedia Group, Softcard and Microsoft. ↗

PM Insights expands into APAC region with new Singapore office. This expansion will allow PM Insights to provide existing partners with same-timezone support and have the ability to explore opportunities for growth in the region. ↗

Jay Farber has taken on the new position of General Manager of GPX at Juniper Square. GPX is Juniper Square’s unified GP data platform and the workflows and AI applications that are on it. For the last five years, Farber was the Director of Sales, Venture Capital and Private Equity at Juniper Square. ↗

Kroll expands global restructuring practice. Sarah Rayment, Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Restructuring, based in London, has been joined by Jason Kardachi, based in Singapore, as he becomes the new Global Co-Head of Restructuring. Kardachi joined Kroll in 2021 as Managing Director. He has more than 27 years of experience in corporate advisory and restructuring in Asia Pacific. Kroll has also appointed two senior hires to lead its Restructuring practice across European markets as Co-Heads of Restructuring in Europe. Aurelio Garcia-Miro, Managing Director, based in London, and Andreas Fluhrer, Managing Director, based in Munich, respectively have over 25 and 20 years of experience in restructuring. They will build an integrated financial and operational restructuring practice with a focus on providing interim management and executive services, cross-border in and out of court restructurings and will take on Board advisory roles. These appointments launch Kroll’s Restructuring practice in Germany. Also, in the UK, David Eden has joined as Managing Director in Kroll’s Restructuring practice with a focus on real estate advisory. Lastly, in the UAE, Kroll welcomes Associate Managing Director Christian Jarjour and Senior Vice President Bharat Khemani, who join the Restructuring practice based in Dubai. ↗

Grandview Analytics promotes James Pardee to Director. With over 13 years of experience in the financial industry, Pardee delivers solutions by sourcing and consolidating investment data and implementing data management strategies for asset managers. Prior to joining Grandview, Pardee was an Associate Director at UBS and a Fixed Income Analyst at Neuberger Berman. ↗

Position Green welcomes Katie Blum as a Senior Manager in the New York office. Before joining Position Green, Blum was a Principal - Advisory Lead Americas at Holtara and also spent time at Persefoni as a Director, Financial Services & Climate Solutions. With previous experience in carbon accounting and ESG integration, Blum specializes in helping organizations navigate the regulatory landscape and align compliance with value creation. ↗

VENDOR RESEARCH & WHITEPAPERS

Cofi.ai has a new blog, "The Competitive Edge of Automation in Portfolio Management". In this blog, Cofai.ai goes over four reasons why automated solutions are "revolutionizing portfolio monitoring". ↗

Grata has a new blog, "Corporate Development vs. Investment Banking Explained". In this article, Grata explores the distinctions between corporate development and investment banking, outlining their roles, responsibilities, career paths, industry trends, networking strategies, and technological advancements. ↗

FINTRX has a new blog, "3 Ways to Improve Your Cold Outreach to RIAs". In this blog, FINTRX explores three ways you can use FINTRX data to enhance cold outreach to RIAs, which helps to increase chances of getting responses and securing conversations. ↗

Digify has a new blog, "4 Data Room Tips to Speed Up Your M&A Process". Digify states that with the M&A process becoming increasingly complex and data-intensive, efficient VDR management is now more crucial than ever. Optimizing your data room management isn’t just about organization — it’s about maintaining deal momentum and accelerating value creation in a complex deal environment. In this blog, Digify gives four tips that can optimize a M&A data room and accelerate the M&A process. ↗

AWARDS

FactSet awarded Best Buy-Side EMS at TradingTech Insight, from A-Team Group Insight Awards for its enterprise trading system, Portware. ↗