LVH, the parent of 55 Capital, has raised $10 million in Series A funding to build out its technology platform for investors and further its financial research.
Point72 Ventures, the venture capital fund associated with billionaire Steven Cohen, is participating in the round. Others include Calibrate Management and Tectonic Ventures.
55 Capital has been working on a product that makes it easier for asset managers and other investors to build custom portfolios. They specialize in evaluating ETFs and the team has significant prior experience in the category. LVH co-founder Lee Kranefuss previously started iShares.
There’s a “big gap between the investment science getting done and what’s actually getting into the hands of the broader market,” said Dr. Vinay Nair, co-founder of LVH. “We allow them to turn their own dials and design their own flavor of their strategy,” determining the mix of stocks, bonds and other investment categories.
They are working to integrate their technology with some of the industry’s enterprise software platforms. Other clients include wealth management firms and hedge funds.
Their core business model draws similarities to asset managers, where they charge fees based on the assets they manage or advise. The offerings can be white labeled or co-branded.
LVH is a holding company and 55 Capital was established in late 2015. 55 Capital’s CEO is Bruce Lavine, former president of Wisdom Tree.
Motif Investing, Wealthfront and Betterment are amongst the startups that are trying to shake up the investment space. 55 Capital is not classified as a roboadvisor as the investment strategies aren’t purely automated, but it does plan to work with companies in that category.
The best investment solution is going to be “some mix of man and machine,” predicted Nair.Â
Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, managing partner at Tectonic Ventures, said that he invested in LVH because he believes it’s the “right time” to improve financial investment technology and “these seems like the right guys.” He said that there’s been a lot of great research that isn’t readily accessible. We “have all these fresh ingredients but we don’t have the recipe.”
LVH plans to use some of the capital to make acquisitions on the “advisory side of the business,” said Nair. They want to continue to build out more product offerings.
The company has offices in New York, San Francisco and Mumbai.