In October 2016, Prospect Marketplace Lending Corp. filed an N-8A and an N-2 indicating the company's investment status and plans for managing a closed-end fund investing 80% of the assets in marketplace lending investments; the firm has now filed a Form 40-APP; the Form 40-APP requests permission to offer multiple share classes, each with its own fee and expense structure. Source
CreditEase Wealth Management announced the first close of their second fund dedicated to investing in Israeli tech startups; the amount raised was $32.2 million; final target for the fund is $50 million; the focus of investments will include virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, digital healthcare, internet of things technology, cloud and data storage, and advanced manufacturing. Source
The marketplace lending industry has evolved with investments coming from a range of market channels; to help marketplace loans integrate even further into the mainstream the industry needs involvement from 'gatekeepers' and needs to educate the asset allocator community; Lend Academy discusses the investment consultant process to bring new types of investments to asset allocators; to help facilitate this communication, LendIt is offering asset allocators free tickets to LendIt USA 2017 and is planning a special event at the conference for asset allocators, hosted by fund managers. Source
Global wealth managers have been increasingly partnering with fintech companies to provide their customers with new digital wealth management solutions; the Morgan Stanley Addepar partnership is one of the market's most recent deals involving new digital wealth management services; the chart below provides insight on some of the leading factors involved in digital wealth management strategies for global wealth managers; the ability to increase access and collaboration potential with clients and experts is one of the market's top factors. Source
A number of new smartphone apps are now available with varying methods for inspiring consumers to save; apps such as Stash, Acorns, Digit, Qapital and Long Game are making it simpler and easier to make incremental savings deposits and investments through automated technology; with these new apps, investors can automate the investment of unused cash and round up purchases, saving extra pennies. Source
Artificial intelligence (AI) solutions are emerging in the wealth management space as a rival for robo advice; AI solutions are providing more sophisticated investment portfolio options than robo advisors using machine learning data optimization capabilities; there are a number of AI solutions supporting investment management that are already being used broadly within wealth management including Watson, Alladin, Kensho and Sqreem; these artificial intelligence systems and others under development have the capability to develop investing portfolios based on a range of technological data inputs while also using machine learning to analyze, interpret and act on information obtained from various sources such as news articles and social media; it's predicted that these AI solutions could evolve into offering more robust portfolio advice directly for retail investors. Source
We had an all-star panel of the pioneer fund managers at LendIt 2016 to discuss how to prepare their portfolio for a market downturn. The managers were beginning to see greater dispersion in returns and started to question whether a downturn was coming. However, as we have seen, the bull market continued its historic rise throughout the year. Nevertheless, it was great to hear firsthand from these managers on how they stay prepared for a market correction. Source
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Established fund management companies are leading the next wave of market computerization through investment in robo advisors; robo advisors offer automated investment options with lower fee structures; investment managers are buying and integrating these services to expand their offering and mitigate competitive factors; a partnership between John Hancock Financial and NextCapital is one of the latest examples; other deals have included SigFig with Wells Fargo and UBS, BlackRock with FutureAdvisor and Fidelity with eMoney. Source
Dan Loeb of Third Point is the latest hedge fund to invest in marketplace lending; the hedge fund manager has reported a 10% allocation to marketplace loans and says that he will be reducing his investment in structured credit and specifically residential mortgage backed securities to allocate to the fixed income alternative; Loeb says he is working with marketplace lenders on securitized portfolios and is excited about the investment opportunities available in the marketplace lending market; the firm also has a venture capital business, Third Point Ventures, which is invested in SoFi, Upstart and Swift Capital. Source
Former Goldman Sachs banker Mona El Isa has founded an asset management services company that will provide blockchain solutions for hedge funds; El Isa launched Melonport in February 2016 with co-founder Reto Trinkler and has now hired George Hallam, former head of external communications at the Ethereum Foundation; El Isa's hedge fund services will use smart contracts to automate various aspects of portfolio management for hedge fund managers which will lower the costs of building a hedge fund. Source