It’s been a busy month with an investor event completed in mid-June and many fund raising meetings in Boston and NYC.
We are seeing a great deal of interest in FinTech and our unique data advantage. We continue to see approximately 5 to 7 new startup business plans a week. There is no end to the creativity of entrepreneurs and their desire to improve and automate the financial services industry.
This month we focus on two key areas: Wealth management trends and LifeYield. The news around LifeYield is exciting and centers on a new round of investment in which we participated and an impressive write up in value resulting from significant revenue growth. We are proud to be their partners in helping Americans lead successful lives in retirement.
General Partners Point of View
LifeYield – Follow-on Investment Announcement
We closed Q2 2017 with another step in the right direction. Vestigo Ventures Fund 1, L.P. invested an additional $280K as a follow-on investment in LifeYield LLC, as part of their $2.6MM Series G. The round was led by Allianz Life Ventures, and had strong continuing support from existing investors. Over the 15 months that Vestigo has been an investor in LifeYield, the company has nearly tripled revenues and they have a robust pipeline of top-tier prospects across the financial services landscape.
$1MM Ticket To Nowhere – Part 2
The employment market for developers is incredibly competitive, and they are worth every dollar. A good startup can not be dependent on an outsourced dev shop: They need to own and build their stack.
Democratizing Wealth Management
What we’re doing today on a mobile phone for beginning savers is what I used to do on a mainframe 30-plus years ago for wealthy families. We have truly democratized wealth management over the last three decades.
Portfolio Updates
How Netcapital’s CEO Built a Company that lets Entrepreneurs Leverage their Popularity for Funds
Jim Cramer sat down with Netcapital founder and CEO Jason Frishman to find out how he is changing the company financing game.
NetCapital Portfolio Company Update
NetCapital was pre-revenue when Vestigo Ventures Fund 1, L.P. invested in the company’s convertible note. Soon after, NetCapital successfully completed the beta release of their equity crowd funding portal and in January 2017 they achieved the commercial launch of their platform.
Vestmark Portfolio Update
Vestmark is a classic example of an excellent management team that knows how to simply execute on their plan. The company continues to maintain the “gold standard” in revenue growth and they achieved record revenue levels in Q1 2017 and nearly reached that same level again in Q2 2017.
Former Merrill Lynch Executive, Riley Etheridge, Joins LifeYield Advisory Board
Riley Etheridge, Jr., CFA, CFP, a former senior executive at Merrill Lynch, has joined the advisory board of LifeYield, a transformative software company that helps forward-thinking financial firms, advisors and investors make more and keep more money through offering digitally-enhanced advice.
The Financial Revolutionist: COMPANY OF NOTE
“Low cost investments and diversification are important, but they’re not everything.” That’s the perspective offered by Jack Sharry of LifeYield, a Boston wealthtech company that helps financial advisors optimize the tax efficiency of their clients’ portfolios.
Industry News
Deloitte: 10 Disruptive Trends in Wealth Management
Learn how a new generation of investors, shifting demographics, increased regulatory burdens, and competition will disrupt the Wealth Management industry.
IBM Watson Client Insight for Wealth Management
We saw IBM Watson at SXSW and were impressed with the breath of what they are doing in many industries. We have now seen several startups that are using Watson as platforms for their services. We are sharing this intro video from IBM that helps provide an illustration to their capabilities. While we see IBMs work as experimental, it does show the enormous focus technology providers are putting into wealth management. This will bring change on many levels for incubents and start-ups.