Posted By Gbaf News
Posted on June 12, 2018
InvestCloud acquisition extends Direct-To-Consumer (D2C) offering for institutional asset managers
InvestCloud Inc., a global FinTech firm, has announced a strategic acquisition of London-based rplan Limited. The value of the deal is $20 million.
rplan is the UK’s leading provider of client engagement technology to support bespoke investment propositions for web and mobile. Its client base includes some of the largest institutional asset managers in the world, including four of the top eight in the UK. rplan has had significant success enabling asset managers to digitize their existing retail clients and catapult the development of their digital strategy to support multi-channel distribution.
The acquisition will see rplan’s capabilities made available to InvestCloud’s global client base of more than 700 firms, including some of the largest financial institutions in North America.
John Wise, Chairman and CEO of InvestCloud, commented: “The success of rplan’s solution is indicative of a changing institutional asset management industry. In the UK, D2C has been popular for several years, and hence more common as a channel. In the US, fund managers have been traditionally concerned about channel conflict. But the success of Vanguard with significant inflows is changing the landscape and the approach of other US fund managers.”
Wise added: “Institutional asset management is an important and growing segment for InvestCloud. The writing is on the wall: asset managers are trending toward multi-channel financial distribution that includes D2C solutions. Embracing D2C is a smart play for asset managers given the success of companies like Vanguard. InvestCloud D2C and other digital product channels will be combined with rplan product strengths. They truly complement the InvestCloud Digital Platform and will bolster our successes in this space.”
Like InvestCloud, rplan’s technology is modern, API-based and cloud-native, and addresses the requirements of a heavily regulated and international marketplace. The rplan solution is also highly modular, enabling it to be integrated with any platform. This strategic acquisition enhances the existing strength of InvestCloud’s digital client engagement capabilities, tailored for an institutional asset management audience.
Andy Creak, Director at rplan, said: “We are very excited to be part of the InvestCloud platform. InvestCloud has been extremely successful in the Americas, supplying the largest financial institutions in the US and Canada. rplan has the most advanced D2C solution in the UK. We look forward to combining the InvestCloud platform and financial resources with our own solution and know-how to dominate the D2C market globally.”
InvestCloud is known for its leadership in digital and the revolutionary PWP (Programs Writing Programs) technology. PWP enables small teams to create digital solutions on the InvestCloud Digital Platform at a fraction of the traditional time and costs required to get to market. This technology means the generation of endless user experiences and workflows. This allows all InvestCloud users to have unique solutions that differentiate them in a digital landscape. The Digital Platform combines financial apps and APIs. rplan is the latest firm to be added since the successful launch of Freetrade in the UK.
