Fund administrator Citco and $121 billion asset management firm, Ares Management, have led a Series A round of funding for a front-to-back data analytics platform.
The two firms invested into Lightpoint Financial Technology, which provides trading, risk and analytics technology, supporting entire trade workflows including execution, portfolio management, settlement, reconciliation, administration and client reporting.
The investment sees Citco’s Jay Peller, head of fund services, and Michael Arougheti, president of Ares Management, join the Lightpoint board of directors.
With Peller on the board, he will provide strategic consulting into product development, based on Citco’s fund servicing and alternative investment operations expertise.
“With our deep experience, global footprint, and wide range of business relationships, Citco has a unique perspective on our industry’s needs. We are happy to extend support to LightPoint and very much look forward to a continued relationship of growth,” said Citco’s Peller.
LightPoint aims to leverage distributed ledger technology (DLT) to transform the core book-of-records into a shared ledger which would be distributed to the trading community.
The investment is the latest move for fund administrators looking to expand their front- and middle-office data capabilities. The $2.6 billion deal for Charles River Development by State Street and the $1.45 billion takeover of Eze Software by SS&C Technologies have been reflections of this trend.