Former Global Head of Distribution at Muzinich & Co., Tom Douie, and former Citi Private Bank EMEA Head of Private Equity Investments, Alexis Weber, have launched Private Markets Alpha (PM Alpha), a digital marketplace for Asset & Wealth Managers, Advisors and Distributors.
PM Alpha is aiming to popularise Private Markets investment to a wider investment base by enabling better access for wealth managers to the best Private Markets Managers.
The founders have been planning to launch a firm to bring a comprehensive private markets solution to the sector for a number of years, according to Tom Douie, PM Alpha Founder and CEO.
“The timing is good as the client demand is there, the investment case is strong and the technology available to solve historical barriers to entry,” he said.
The Company is owned by its founders and its co-founders- former Citi Private Bank EMEA Alternative Investments Sales Lead Melyan Guerrero and former Citi Private Bank EMEA Operational Due Diligence Lead Chloe Mercer.
The business has so far raised close to £1m through private fundraising.
Further external investment from other private and institutional investors is anticipated later this year, commented Douie.
The company is building a digital community of Wealth Managers, Asset Managers and Private Markets Fund Managers by supporting them with a platform, which offers a full range of exclusive private investment solutions tailored and curated for distribution to underlying investors.
PM Alpha’s ‘one-stop shop’ solution will provide clients with access to the right products in a timely manner while helping overcome the problem of Wealth Managers having to pay very high fees, rely on cumbersome paperwork, and being cowed by high investment minimums, to access the products their customers need.
“We are entirely focused on private markets. Our value proposition is to have an all-weather comprehensive private markets toolkit,” Douie said.
“The value we bring is identifying and blending the specialists that provide the specific exposures and private markets that we need at that particular time in the market cycle, which is driven by our thematic overview,” he added.
According to Douie, there are many barriers for the wealth manager offering private markets to its investors.
“By solving for each of those problems, Private Markets Alpha is enabling the wealth manager to offer private markets to as broad a membership of its investor base as possible,” he said.
These are issues such as selecting the right thematic, choosing and blending the right managers aiding in the capital raising process and fully digitising the onboarding, ongoing reporting and even secondary liquidity provision for those clients in the long run, he said.
Douie added that one of the key selling points to wealth managers is liquidity.
“Many of our fund propositions are constructed to deliver a shorter lifespan and provides a fully drawn option, which are issues with traditional private markets funds that have provided some resistance with the end investor,” he said.
Douie further said that knowing that success in private markets for the wealth management sector involves “not just the right curated investments with the right thematic backing”, but also a delivery toolkit that uses the right structures in the marketplaces where the demand exists; an appreciation for the administration and the simplicity of marketing materials that make capital raising your clients effective; and simplifying the client experience of onboarding.
