Envestnet, a wealth management technology company, said Thursday acquired Upside, which provides registered investment advisers with online investment services, for an undisclosed sum. Upside advises and manages client investments on an automated platform. Executives from both companies said that the combination of Upside and Envestnet will help place RIAs ahead of their "robo-adviser" competition. (More: 3 'must do's' from the T3 Conference) "There's been a lot of attention around the robo-adviser," Bill Crager, president of Envestnet, said. "What Upside does is gives us that front end portal but behind the scenes, Envestnet has the infrastructure to help advisers perform." Envestnet will use Upside's portal for financial planning and investment management alongside its own services, which include portfolio analytics, reporting and account servicing. Juney Ham, co-founder and president of Upside, said Envestnet and Upside shared the same goals. "The visions are so closely aligned," Mr. Ham said. "We've been focused on building the next generation, we both support the same group of people and we both want advisers to win." Mr. Ham and Tom Kimberly, co-founder and CEO of Upside, will join Envestnet as senior vice presidents. Envestnet's Advisor Suite offers advisers management tools.
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