- Fintech platform The Tifin Group raised $22 million in Series B funding from JP Morgan and others.
- The platform already sold one of its operating companies, 55ip, to JP Morgan in December 2020.
- Tifin wants to be a one-stop shop for advisors in the wealth and asset management space.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
The Tifin Group, a Boulder, Colorado-based platform of fintech companies in wealth management, investments, and personal finance, raised $22.3 million in Series B funding on Tuesday from JPMorgan, Morningstar, and Broadridge.
The new funding comes hot off the heels of the two acquisitions and months after selling tax-analysis and portfolio management software vendor 55 Institutional Partners (55ip) to JPMorgan in December.
The new capital will be used to fuel growth, acquisitions, and further technological innovation in the asset management space, according to a press release from the firm.
Tifin, which counts rockstar investor Cathie Wood as an investor and advisor to the company, is a holding company with nine fintech subsidiaries that assist asset managers and financial advisors who are struggling with outdated distribution models, ultimately driving an increased flow of client assets.
Its companies span a range of functions, from Magnifi and Positivly, which provide tailored investment recommendations and analysis, to Clout, an AI-powered content marketing platform that helps advisors drive sales, to Paralel, which helps asset managers improve their back office.
At the end of March, Tifin acquired two new technology providers including risk profiling firm Totum Risk and a personal financial planning offering, myFinancialAnswers.
“[Tifin’s story] is a story about how fintech innovation is realigning asset and wealth management,” said Vinay Nair, founder of both 55ip and Tifin. “None of these investors [in the Series B] are doing it purely for a financial return. Just as how there have been significant fintech players in payments, or insurance or banking, I think the opportunity here is that the wealth and asset management space hasn’t really seen one platform player.”
Founded in 2018 Tifin, has grown most of its platform businesses in-house, and plans to use the proceeds from its Series B to buycompanies in financial media under its new operating company, myFinancialAnswers. The company is also eyeing investments in its tech capabilities including conversational AI and natural language generation.
Nair said Tifin did not use a pitch deck for its Series B round, instead attracting investors who were already clients on the platform.
Tifin previously raised a $22 million Series A in Q4 2020 from individuals in the wealth and asset management space to kickstart its evolution from a fintech studio into an operating business with an integrated platform. To date, Nair has raised a total of $80 million for the platform.
In addition to Ark Invest founder Wood, the company has attracted a number of top executives to its list of advisors, including David Pottruck, former CEO of Schwab, Glenn Hubbard, former chair of the US Council of Economic Advisors, and Gary Kaminsky, former vice-chair of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Nair said that Wood in particular is more involved in the company than the typical advisor and that the group meets every four to six weeks to discuss strategy.
Following the 55ip’s sale to JP Morgan, Nair, who founded both 55ip and Tifin, has been serving as a special advisor to Mary Erdoes, CEO of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management business, helping that arm of the bank hone its fintech strategy. Erdoes and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon have both expressed the bank’s appetite for acquisitions, including in the asset management space.
55ip’s technology rapidly increased inflows to asset managers including JP Morgan, BlackRock, and Wisdom Tree, while under Nair’s watch. The company, which is now managed separately to the bank, went from $250 million in assets at the beginning of 2020 to $1.7 billion by the end of last year. This exponential growth has continued under JP Morgan’s ownership, Nair said. Tifin is currently working with other financial advisors, asset managers, and wealth firms with a combined $500 billion on the platform.
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