Bridge Financial Technology: Streamlining the complex

Why MissionOG invested in this leading portfolio management platform for financial advisors

One of our core investment themes is the pursuit of industry-specific SaaS solutions that will create meaningful efficiencies in industries that may have been slow to adopt new technology. A key component in the applications of that theme is an industry’s readiness for change and adoption of new solutions.

It is with this backdrop that we seek extraordinary opportunities within the wealth management industry. Given the opportunity within the vertical, we research “wealthtech” providers that promise enhanced automation and advanced digital capabilities, which in turn drive greater insights, efficiency and ultimately superior results for their customers.

Within wealth management, MissionOG first made an investment in Solovis, a leading provider for institutional investors that offers a powerful cloud-based platform for multi-asset class portfolio management, reporting and analytics, all uniquely designed for endowments, foundations, pensions, OCIOs and family offices. Similar to Solovis’ core market, we believe that a significant opportunity exists for disruption and success within the fast-growing registered investment advisor (RIA) industry.

Growth within the overall category is compelling: global AUM is anticipated to crest $100 trillion by 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 6%¹. RIA growth well exceeds that of traditional full service brokerage firms, or wirehouses, with RIA asset growth rising 40% since 2005 compared to only 5% for wirehouses². This large market and trend signal ample opportunity for disruptors to scale and to do so quickly.

MissionOG identified Bridge as uniquely positioned to take advantage of this growth due to their strong product-market fit and resulting client demand.  Bridge’s Atlas software automates necessary, but time-consuming functions for advisors from data management to client reporting. The impact is meaningful: using the software can result in up to 20% more time to spend on client acquisition and prospecting. Advisors scale faster, serve more clients, and are more productive. And Bridge’s client growth has been significant; the company has seen its advisor client base increase 10x over the last three years.

We are extremely impressed with Bridge’s management team. Rasheed Hammouda, CEO and co-founder, and team understand how to build efficiency into advisor workflow to streamline their business. Bridge is obsessive about client success, and the integration of technological innovation to deliver greater impact to their clients. With the capital raise, Bridge will expand its engineering team and has already added senior leadership for client success & operations to further scale client onboarding and support services. These additions will mean even greater innovation and scale that will directly benefit their clients.

To assist Bridge realize its vision to empower its advisor clients, MissionOG has co-led a Series A investment with FINTOP Capital, with participation from existing investors UMB Bank and Paredo. As Rasheed noted, “I’m really excited to have MissionOG as a partner. They have deep experience as operators and investors in this industry and I believe Bridge will benefit greatly from their operational experience and broad relevant network.”

We very much look forward to supporting their road ahead.

 

¹PwC, “Asset Management 2020 A Brave New World”

²TD Ameritrade, “There’s a reason why the RIA model is the fastest growing channel.”