InvestorFlow deal merges investor portal with Blackstone-incubated CRM

InvestorFlow, which provides cloud-based investor portals to some of the biggest names in alternative assets, will soon announce a merger with Cloud Theory, which offers an enterprise customer relationship management software platform, called FundEngine, for both alternative asset managers and banks. The two will also announce a $30 million Series A investment from Connecticut-based Ambina Partners.

InvestorFlow boasts more than 10,000 global institutions managing over $2 trillion of assets, according to its website. Those are said to include household names in private markets like KKR, Y Combinator, Brookfield and Angelo Gordon, among others, though those representing the firm to Private Funds CFO wouldn’t confirm that.

However, InvestorFlow founder and CEO Todd Glasson did say that the firm has learned from working with big-hitting investor management clients both in private markets and more broadly. “We’re doing this at the enterprise level, and having codified how large enterprises manage this information and these workflows, we’re going to be able to bring that sophistication to middle-market managers, as well,” Glasson said.

FundEngine, a so-called “smart UI” (smart user interface) built on top of Salesforce, was incubated by Blackstone. The new InvestorFlow entity will be headquartered in Menlo Park, California and have offices “throughout North America,” according to an announcement viewed by Private Funds CFO. The existing company has offices in New York, Palo Alto and Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.

Glasson says the deal will create a combined offering – under the InvestorFlow name – that acts as asset managers’ “single, personalized, secure touchpoint for every stakeholder,” integrating fundraising workflows, onboarding processes, managers’ bank portals, reporting processes, compliance, investor services and more, Glasson told PFCFO.

The platform will also act as tool for marketing, he added, while enhancing all forms of electronic communications between investors and managers, particularly email, creating a “true dialogue” between GPs interacting with the CRM and LPs interacting with the portal. “We’ll be able to round-trip those digital conversations,” Glasson said.

“The market is recognizing that the world is asynchronous,” he added. And organizations’ employees and clients are more geographically disperse than ever. “Given those two major themes – which, though secular, have been accelerated by the pandemic – these digital technologies for engagement with investors and creating smarter workflows and CRM interfaces are critical to investment managers for managing their businesses.”

The company, which plans to invest in machine learning and data, also plans to launch offices in London and Singapore within the year, Glasson said.