iCapital, the global alts-focused fintech provider, is aiming to ease a major friction point for wealth advisors and fund investors with its latest acquisition agreement.
The alternatives platform giant announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Parallel Markets, a financial identity provider specializing in reusable investor onboarding and compliance verification solutions.
The deal aims to enhance iCapital’s alternative investment platform by simplifying KYC and AML processes for wealth advisors, institutional investors, and fund managers.
“Onboarding and verifying digital investor identity and compliance is a major friction point in private markets investing,” Lawrence Calcano, chairman and CEO of iCapital, said in a statement Thursday morning. “Parallel Markets has pioneered software that supports a reusable investor passport, streamlining these duplicative processes for advisors, investors, and fund managers.”
The iCapital Investor Passport will allow users to create a universal digital identity, eliminating redundant compliance checks across multiple investments. The company stated that this will save time and resources while improving the user experience within the iCapital ecosystem.
Citing a report from Burton Taylor International Consulting, iCapital said the financial services industry spends an estimated $2.5 billion each year globally on identity verification and compliance processes.
Tony Peccatiello, co-founder and CEO of Parallel Markets, shared his enthusiasm for the acquisition.
“We built an industry-leading onboarding and KYC/AML passport solution for financial institutions who are looking to streamline and scale their business by eliminating redundant processes," he said. "We are thrilled to join iCapital and together provide an innovative, tech-enabled identity management service.”
iCapital's compliance-focused acquisition agreement comes right after Archive Intel, compliance archiving tech provider, announced it has secured $1.5 million in additional capital through a funding round led by Garuda Ventures. Social Leverage, which led the $1 million seed funding round for Archive Intel last May, also participated in the latest financing.
The company said it has gained substantial traction in the market, surpassing 220 clients and 2,000 users in just six months.
“Archive Intel’s innovative platform and leadership team are well-positioned to shape the future of communication compliance,” said Rishi Taparia, co-founder and general partner of Garuda Ventures.
According to Archive Intel CEO Larry Shumbres, who was among the founding leadership team at the startup's launch in April last year, the funding will be used to expand the company’s integrations and infrastructure, supporting its mission to make compliance processes “seamless, efficient, and future-ready.”
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