Bite Investments, a London-based fintech company with an alternative investments platform, said yesterday that an undisclosed amount has been provided by JMP Group, an investment banking and alternative asset management firm headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Bite provides high net worth investors access to alternative asset funds and their underlying, direct co-investment opportunities, in small-sized amounts. The funds typically might be either oversubscribed, too illiquid, or have an institutional-level minimum buy-in.
Alternative investments include private equity and debt, venture capital, hedge funds, commodities, property and other tangible assets such as art, fine wines and classic cars.
“We are continuing to attract progressive partners who recognise the steady growth and related opportunities associated with both our fintech platform and the soaring global private equity market,” Bite CEO William Rudebeck said in a statement.
Bite was founded in 2019 by Rudebeck and Henry Talbot-Ponsonby, CEO of VCP Advisors, the majority owners of Bite.
The firm’s technology-enabled investment platform allows wealthy individual investors, independent financial advisors, wealth managers, family offices and other investment platforms to buy alternative investments through aggregating commitments together, via feeder funds.
Asia footprint
Bite closed a $10m pre-Series A funding round backed by Apex a year ago, and shortly afterwards, it formed a partnership with Apex in May 2020 to service the Asia – especially China – high net worth market.
Apex provides global financial services including digital onboarding and bank accounts, depository and custody to asset managers, capital markets and private clients via over 40 offices and 3,500 employees worldwide.
“[We have] attracted a team of shareholders and advisors and leveraged the technical expertise of our tech professionals to build a fintech platform that makes the user experience seamless by effectively managing the entire investor journey…from client suitability, KYC, and accreditation to the investment decision and transaction, regulatory compliance, and due diligence”, said Rudebeck. “
Fintech firms are increasing their activities in the wealth management industry.
A handful of “wealthtechs”, such as AutoWealth (Singapore), Kristal.AI (Singapore and Hong Kong), Lufax (mainland China), Stashaway (Singapore) and Welnvest (Singapore), have entered the Asian wealth management arena and are expanding beyond their home-bases. However, “with a lot of their solutions being B2B, most of these firms are emerging as potential partners and tech solution providers to the incumbents, instead of pure competitors”, noted a recent KPMG report.
