This Week’s Vendor News

NEW & UPDATED PRODUCTS

Bite Investments launches its Virtual Data Room 2.0 as part of its end to-end Bite Stream platform. VDR 2.0 offers new enhancements to the platform like: document security, improved workflow efficiency, and integrated collaboration tools. Additionally, Bite Stream’s VDR is fully integrated into its onboarding, fundraising, and investor relations platform. This ensures that alternative investment professionals can seamlessly manage the full investor lifecycle without their investor and / or LP’s having to switch between multiple systems. Instead of stand-alone point solutions, Bite Stream’s approach eliminates the operational inefficiencies often associated with using separate platforms for different tasks. Point solutions typically come with high costs, require multiple logins, and necessitate training teams on different systems, which can create unnecessary friction in communicating with investors. ↗

Ideals unveils its new brand identity. Along with a new brand identity, Ideals has welcomed new team members, optimized its processes and launched a redesigned product user experience. Some of the main changes are: 1 - Enhanced brand experience: The new design embodies Ideals commitment to delivering a user friendly, secure environment that helps users close deals fast and collaborate effectively. 2 - Purpose-built solutions: Ideals has restructured its subscription plans for clarity and precision. The transparent pricing approach ensures users only pay for what they need, without hidden fees or unnecessary costs. ↗

Northern Trust's newly rebranded Integrated Trading Solutions web page is now live. Northern Trust's Integrated Trading Solutions provides asset owners and managers with the ability to optimize their execution quality and trading operations throughout the entire investment lifecycle. ↗

Due Diligence Scoring is now available on Novata's platform. Scoring a company’s ESG performance against a defined rubric is one way for GPs to measure performance during the due diligence process. A scoring system enables deal teams and ESG specialists to identify areas for improvement, assess a company’s risks and opportunities, and determine whether a company aligns with the fund’s investment criteria. Done manually, scoring can be time consuming, often requiring teams to work closely with multiple portfolio companies on collecting the data, organizing it in Excel, and exporting the information for further review and reporting. To help simplify the process, Novata introduced this new ESG due diligence scoring feature for deal teams to leverage data collected from their portfolio companies on the platform and see how they perform against peers. ↗

Drawbridge debuts real-time executive summary of a manager’s cyber risk program. The aim is to enable alts managers to strengthen confidence in their firm’s cyber posture by working with Drawbridge. GPs and board members can use these insights to assess vulnerabilities and make resourcing decisions. Through its existing client hub, an executive summary offers a consolidated view of actionable insights into cybersecurity governance, assessment, testing, monitoring, remediation, and forecasting. This helps the alternative investment management community make informed risk decisions to comply with investor and regulatory concerns. For alts managers, it’s a reliable way to assess, benchmark, and remediate cyber and infosec controls to protect capital and reduce operational risk. ↗

S&P Global Market Intelligence launches first set of blueprints on the S&P Global Marketplace, making the insights and code behind its research accessible to clients. Each blueprint offers a practical guide for clients to replicate and build on S&P's analyses with pre-built workflows and details on the datasets used. ↗

InvestorFlow introduces InvestorFlow Pulse and Portfolio to its Solution Suite. Following InvestorFlow's acquisition of the CRE software solution Coyote, it has rebranded its investment and asset management modules to InvestorFlow Pulse and Portfolio. ↗

Arcesium has debuted Aquata’s Gen AI, Copilot. Copilot serves as an intelligent assistant, enabling users to engage with Aquata’s functionalities in a more user-friendly way. Copilot acts as an interactive guide, helping users learn how to use various features of Aquata. The tool leverages Aquata’s product documentation to generate responses to boost productivity when using the platform. What can CoPilot do? 1 - Data discovery (Copilot enables seamless exploration of Aquata’s data catalog.) 2 - SQL query generation. 3 - Creating data quality rules.
One of the primary goals with Copilot is to extend the self-service capabilities of Aquata. By providing users with an intelligent assistant can lead to: 1 - efficiency, 2 - independence, 3 - quick decision-making. ↗

Sourcescrub launches Conference Planning to identify and build relationships with targets. Sourcescrub's Conference Planning includes: AI features, notifications and collaboration and task management tools. With Conference Planning, users can: manage conferences, find new conferences, set conference schedule and get conference recommendations. ↗

DEAL ACTIVITY

Kroll enhances cross-border restructuring services with talent acquisition from ACE Advisory. The addition of the Global Restructuring team from ACE enhances Kroll’s service offerings in the Dutch market and its global operational footprint, bolstering cross-border capabilities in the UK and other jurisdictions. The addition of ACE’s team of professionals underscores Kroll’s dedication to advisory services and its commitment to enhancing its financial and risk advisory services globally. Following this acquisition, Kroll’s capabilities in the Dutch market have expanded to include turnaround and restructuring management, independent business reviews, and debt and capital restructuring. ACE Advisory’s team enhances Kroll’s ability to deliver financial guidance and strategic solutions, driving value and success for clients. ↗

The Openwork Partnership receives strategic investment from Bain Capital. In 2023 Openwork announced its intention to seek a minority investor to support the network’s strategic growth plans. The Openwork Partners voted over 98% in favour of the proposed investment by Bain Capital on October 24 2024 which is a resounding endorsement of the decision to select Bain Capital. The deal remains subject to regulatory approval and is expected to complete in H1 2025. Openwork will use the investment to progress its priorities which include enhancing the offering throughout the lifecycle of adviser firms, investing in technology and accelerating growth of the Partnership through strategic initiatives. ↗

PARTNERSHIPS & INTEGRATIONS

BlueFlame AI partners with Anthropic's Claude to give small investment teams enterprise-grade analytical capabilities. With Claude, BlueFlame: 1 - Enables small teams to perform institutional-scale analysis previously requiring large technical departments. 2 - Reduced document analysis time from 4+ hours to minutes. 3 - Supports an average of 30 client queries per day. 4 - Automated comparison of hundreds of companies simultaneously. BlueFlame selected Claude specifically to meet the stringent requirements of financial institutions and for its consistency and reliability. ↗

Atfinity partners with Tagit, a digital banking solutions provider. Under this partnership, Atfinity clients will be able to digitize their processes to ensure that they keep up with the shifting finance landscape. Also, this marks Atfinity’s steady growth into the Southeast Asia market. Benefits of this partnership, which utilizes Atfinity’s automated onboarding and Tagit’s digital banking capabilities include:
• Streamlining all processes across different channels
• Orchestrating key processes for a cohesive system
• Doing away with repetitive tasks
• Shortening the onboarding process
• Lowering the rate of human error
• Opening new channels for banks to communicate with their customers
• Offering a better user experience
• Keeping up with customer expectations. ↗

Close Brothers Asset Management and SEI form strategic partnership. Under this partnership. CBAM will adopt the SEI Wealth Platform and SEI Data Cloud, which provides access to real-time data and analytics to leverage an integrated technology and operational outsourcing solution. CBAM chose SEI following a multi-stage selection process involving several providers. The strategic partnership between CBAM and SEI Investments Europe will deliver integrated technology and services, including data integration, migration, and orchestration, which will enable CBAM to deliver on their strategic objectives. A number of CBAM employees will also join SEI’s SWP Operations team as part of the agreement, and SEI and CBAM will work closely to ensure a smooth transition. ↗

iCapital accelerates its global expansion and adds to its presence in the Gulf Cooperation Council by entering into a strategic partnership with MPW Capital Advisors. Through MPW, iCapital will accelerate the distribution of iCapital Marketplace in the GCC region. This MPW partnership will serve clients in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Additionally, iCapital plans to open regional offices in the near future. ↗

Corvus Group partners with Quantium to provide bespoke fund administration solutions. The Corvus Group leadership team sought a software solution to efficiently administer their clients’ investment structures, covering administration, accounting, transaction bookings, capital notices, and reporting, along with an investor portal for their clients’ LPs. They required a system that was flexible, user-friendly, and a software partner capable of supporting their growth. Corvus Group selected Quantium as their technology partner after an evaluation of the market. ↗

Cento Ventures chooses Dynamo as its CRM & Fundraising Solution to enhance their fundraising and deal flow management processes. Cento Ventures selected Dynamo after a thorough evaluation, recognizing it as the ideal solution for its functionality, configurability, and ease of use. The platform’s capabilities will support Cento in managing investor relations and tracking the volume of deal flow data they encounter. Cento Ventures is a Singapore-based venture capital firm dedicated to supporting Series A and early Series B stage tech startups in Southeast Asia. ↗

OFFICE & PERSONNEL

MSCI recently named Richard Mattison as Head of ESG and Climate. Mattison is responsible for accelerating initiatives and developing fresh strategies for sustainable investing. Mattison is based in London and will report to Alvise Munari, Chief Product Officer. Mattison has over 20 years of experience in sustainable finance and previously served as President of S&P Global’s sustainability unit. Throughout his career, Mattison has advised various financial institutions, companies and governments on how to integrate sustainability and climate change analysis into their decision making. ↗

Qapita expands into the San Francisco bay area. Qapita's new home is BLOCK71 Silicon Valley in San Mateo. With this move, Qapita is expanding its footprint into the US market. ↗

Dealstack achieves compliance with SOC 2 Type 2, with no exceptions, which earns an unqualified, clean opinion in the external audit. This marks a milestone in Dealstack's commitment to data security and regulatory standards. The SOC 2 Type 2 now sits alongside Dealstack's ISO27001 certification attained earlier this year. ↗

Allvue welcomes Deborah DeVerna as its new Chief People Officer. DeVerna has over 20 years of experience as a Human Resources leader and has prior experience that spans talent development, culture building, and change management. Previously, DeVerna served as Chief People Officer at Qontigo and Octave Group, where she led initiatives that fostered people-centered workplaces. ↗

Nth Round is now SOC 2 Type II compliant. Nth Round felt that undergoing this audit was the best way to show its dedication to security, compliance, and building trust with its customers. ↗

VENDOR RESEARCH & WHITEPAPERS

Grata has a new blog, "Generative AI in Investment Banking: A Game-Changer". In this blog, Grata explores the potential of genAI across investment banking functions, including compliance, client servicing, and product development. Grata also outlines the challenges that accompany AI adoption and provide strategies for aligning AI initiatives with broader business goals. ↗

Anaplan has a new blog, "Connected Planning in tech hardware: Bridging the gap between marketing and sales for optimal performance". In this blog, Anaplan explains what Connected Planning is and why it is important and five steps to create an integrated planning process. ↗

Cyndx has a new blog, "Why The Value of Comparable Companies is Invaluable". In this blog, Cyndx goes over five key benefits of using AI for valuation of comparable companies. ↗

Zapflow has a new blog, "Why should security and privacy matter to PE & VC firms?". In this blog, Zalflow explains why it feels that accessing your platform whenever and wherever knowing security is in place - and that it won’t fail you at critical moment - is priceless. ↗

Lantern has a new blog, "The End of Shadow Accounting". In this blog, Lantern goes over four reasons why GPs are taking matters into their own hands, embarking on shadow accounting and manual data management to get assurance in their data. ↗

Inrate has a new blog, "Uncovering Hidden Risks: The Role of Value Chain Assessment in Modern Investing". In this blog, inrate goes over four hidden risks in value chains and three ways that value chain assessment can enhance investment decisions. ↗

AWARDS

Allvue Systems has been recognized as Technology Provider of the Year – Highly Commended at the 2024 Alternative Credit Investor Awards. This award, which recognizes contributions to the private credit industry, was presented on November 6 2024, at the Royal Lancaster London. ↗

AlphaSense wins at the 2025 TrustRadius Buyers' Choice Awards. AlphaSense was ranked the top Financial Research Software for: 1 - Best Relationship 2 - Best Feature Set 3 - Best Value for Price. ↗