US FinTech firm InvestCloud has acquired London-based rplan in a $20m (£14.99m) deal. The acquisition will enable InvestCloud to extend its Direct-To-Consumer (D2C) offering for institutional asset managers.
Rplan provides fund managers with client engagement technology to support digital, bespoke investment propositions. Rplan’s clients include four of the eight largest UK-based fund managers.
rplan’s technology is API-based and cloud-native, and can be integrated with any platform. Under this acquisition, its tech will be made available to InvestCloud’s global client base of more than 700 firms, including Nutmeg and Capital Group.
Andy Creak, director at rplan, shared his thoughts on the deal: “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.”
Headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in New York and London – InvestCloud is a workflow platform that provides cloud-based financial digital solutions for individual investors and institutions alike, assembled to suit client demands. rplan is the latest firm to be added to InvestCloud since the successful launch of Freetrade in the UK.
For managers under $40bn, InvestCloud supports over $1.7trn of assets across 700 clients – from wealth managers, institutional investors & institutional asset managers to family offices, asset services companies, financial platforms & banks.
John Wise, chairman and CEO of InvestCloud, commented on the acquisition: “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 concluded: “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.”