(Bloomberg) -- Apollo Global Management Inc. is investing in startup Vega and adopting its technology that looks to improve service for clients looking to further their investments in private markets.
The asset management giant and fintech-focused investment firm Motive Partners are leading a $20 million Series A round to support Vega AltOS, a technology platform that aims to help alternative asset managers further their distributions. AltOS’ software facilitates a link between the asset manager and investors through the client’s preferred platform.
The idea was born out of an observation that alternative asset managers have been overlooked when it comes to providing a one-stop shop for client services regarding pre-trade, trade execution and post-trade management, according to Alexis Augier, a former Elliott investment professional who founded Vega last year.
“The current landscape offers a bunch of separate point solutions for things like marketing, product discovery distribution, onboarding, or reporting after a transaction, and you’ll need a lot of resources — staffing or time — to put them together and they may still be disjointed,” he said in an interview.
However, there is no “holistic solution” that works to improve client services, Augier said, and “that’s the gap that we’re looking to fill.”
For Apollo, the investment is aligned with the firm’s broader push for innovative solutions that help drive the scale and adoption of private markets in client portfolios, according to Stephanie Drescher, Apollo’s chief client and product development officer.
“The client demand for private markets is far exceeding the markets’ current infrastructure, and we believe that this investment among others help the experience and can be quite valuable to our full range of clients across channels,” she said in an interview.
Apollo has also become an enterprise-scale client of the startup, using Vega AltOS to power its client services across its institutional, family office and global wealth channels.
“Ultimately as a GP, as an asset manager, we believe that this is the type of technology that will enable us to improve and digitize the client journey and client experience,” Drescher said.
(Updates to clarify Vega AltOS platform description in second paragraph.)
