Ark launches general ledger platform

Fintech company Ark has launched a new general ledger platform, arkGL, for private fund managers and administrators to streamline fund financials.

The new platform handles all facets of fund administration and reporting, from the general ledger to financial reporting, partnership and portfolio accounting, investor reporting (including partnership statements), capital calls and distributions.

Ark’s chief executive officer Bill Ward said arkGL was designed to work with the firm’s existing operations and LP platforms to make the finance function more efficient and enhance investor relations.

Ward said arkGL is fully automated, unlike other general ledger software that still forces fund managers to use spreadsheets and manually do reconciliations. Managing directors, CFOs, accountants and third-party consultants have access to all information in real time on the unified platform. LPs and investors are provided access to their individual accounts through a branded, secure investor portal.

While off-the-shelf ledgers can handle basic accounting functions, they cannot be customized and managers still have to rely on spreadsheets and manual reconciliations, Ward said.

“Ark’s new fund accounting capabilities are intuitive workflows built specifically for venture capital and private equity funds and accountants,” he added. “The platform’s flexible and extensible infrastructure lets funds segment their platform to work across in-house and external operations teams, including the ability to utilize multiple fund administrators on a unified platform.”

Ward explained that the platform makes valuations and the finance function more efficient by giving GPs, CFOs and accountants more real-time reporting.

“For firms that schedule investments and all the attributes about their portfolio companies in a spreadsheet, they’ll have to go pull from that data to do their reports and do all the reports. What we do is track all of that in our system and then export your financial reports from there or prepare your financial reports from there. It’s really about creating workflows so it’s not a chore.

The platform is currently best suited to mid-market private equity and VC funds, Ward said. However, Ark will continue to build out the arkGL platform so larger and complex funds can use it.

Ark currently supports over $125 billion in capital commitments, 70,000 end users and 400 fund managers with SOC 2 Type II certification. Ark’s clients include fund administrators, private equity, venture capital, real estate, private credit and fund of funds teams.