Private Markets Roundup: CAIS Raises $170M as Alts Platforms Expand Reach
Alts investment platform CAIS announced a $170 million Series D financing. The round includes investments from lead participant Vista Equity Partners, as well as AllianceBernstein, funds managed by Blue Owl Capital, Carlyle, Fortress Investment Group, Golub Capital, Lord Abbett, and Royal Bank of Canada.
The round values CAIS at over $2 billion, bringing total capital raised to nearly $600 million, and coincides with a three-year organic revenue CAGR of 37%.
“When strategic investors of this caliber back CAIS, it reflects their conviction in both the market opportunity and category leadership,” CAIS founder and CEO Matt Brown said in a statement. “Together with the independent wealth community, we have built the platform technology and client service model this industry deserves, and our biggest chapter is still ahead,” Brown added.
David Breach, president of Vista Equity Partners, will join CAIS’s board of directors. Representatives from Blue Owl, Lord Abbett, Fortress and Carlyle will serve as board observers.
FT Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor, and Sidley Austin LLP served as legal counsel to CAIS on the transaction.
VanEck Partners with Allocate to Expand Private Markets Access for the Wealth Channel
Van Eck has signed on with private markets platform Allocate in a partnership that will enable the asset manager to bring private markets strategies to the wealth channel.
VanEck has a handful of products aimed at institutional investors as well as some ETFs built around private markets, such as the VanEck Alternative Asset Manager ETF, which invests in publicly traded alternative asset managers.
VanEck will use Allocate’s infrastructure to develop new private-market offerings and launch them quickly. VanEck will retain full control of its strategy, product and investor relationships, with Allocate providing the underlying technology and operations.
“Private markets represent one of the most significant opportunities for investors, but they demand a different approach than traditional institutional distribution,” CEO Jan van Eck said in a statement. “Allocate’s technology enabled us to bring our first wealth-focused private markets offering within a matter of weeks. Their solution also integrates with our largest advisory firm clients, which is a ‘must have’ these days.”
Alts Platform Arch Reveals Franklin Templeton, MUFG as Series B Investors
Alts platform Arch revealed previously undisclosed investors from its $52 million Series B round, which it originally announced last September, including MUFG Innovation Partners, Franklin Templeton and Anton Levy, founder of Layer Global.
The new investors complement Arch’s existing Series B backers, Oak HC/FT, Menlo Ventures, Craft Ventures and Quiet Capital.
In conjunction with the news, Arch also said it had surpassed $500 billion in private market assets on its platform, with assets currently totaling $539 billion and having doubled over the past year.
“Crossing $500 billion in assets on our platform is a reflection of how many of the industry’s most sophisticated allocators are turning to Arch to solve that problem,” Arch co-founder and CEO Ryan Eisenman said in a statement. “MUFG Innovation Partners, Franklin Templeton and Anton Levy give us partners with the scale, expertise and institutional relationships to match the appetite for better diligence and insights these investments require.”
Capital from this round supports product development, data and AI infrastructure, and go-to-market expansion. This includes building out CIO tools, enhancing Arch’s client portal and strengthening the pipelines and data integrity that transform fragmented private-markets data into intelligence investors can use. Keith Soura, who recently joined Arch as chief technology officer, will lead these efforts, building the engineering and AI infrastructure needed to execute on these priorities.
Kelly Park Capital Private Funds Launches PRISM 2.0
Kelly Park Capital Private Funds, a private market investing platform providing financial advisors access to curated private investment opportunities, launched PRISM 2.0, the latest iteration of its technology platform, featuring what is calling a “five-in-one” onboarding experience, enabling advisors and their clients to complete a single subscription process across multiple alternative investments.
Rather than requiring advisors and investors to complete a separate subscription package for every investment, the onboarding enables investors to complete a single process before allocating capital across multiple underlying investment strategies.
“Too much of our industry has focused on making a complicated process slightly more efficient by piling five sets of documents into one e-signature process,” said Michael Siedlecki, managing director and head of investment research at KPC Private Funds.
According to KPC Private Funds’ internal estimates, the platform delivers approximately 75% fewer subscription documents, requiring roughly 80% fewer required signatures.
The firm said the platform is rolling out to several hundred users this month, with additional advisory firms currently moving through implementation.
