(Yahoo! Finance) - Global fintech iCapital has bought Parallel Markets, a business that specialises in reusable financial identification solutions.
The move was made with the intention of transforming investor onboarding and compliance processes in alternative investments using advanced technology.
The iCapital Investor Passport will allow investors to create a universal, reusable digital identity for onboarding and compliance verification.
Acting as a secure "data locker," it will simplify the process of managing and sharing sensitive Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) information, reducing duplicative submissions, and improving efficiency across iCapital's platform.
Moreover, the acquisition comes as the financial industry spends an estimated $2.5bn annually on identity verification services. iCapital's integration of Parallel Markets' technology is expected to lower onboarding time and costs for fund managers while ensuring compliance in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.
Lawrence Calcano, chairman and CEO of iCapital stated: "We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Parallel Markets and welcome their team to the iCapital family. Onboarding and verifying digital investor identity and compliance is a major friction point in private markets investing. Parallel Markets has pioneered software that supports a reusable investor passport, streamlining these duplicative processes for advisers, investors, and fund managers. As we continue to evolve our tech stack, we will enhance automated entry for alternative investing and leverage AI and machine learning to offer a complete, intuitive end-to-end solution. This is expected to result in faster onboarding, reduced costs, and a more efficient investment process.”
Tony Peccatiello, co-founder, and CEO of Parallel Markets, who will be joining iCapital as part of the acquisition, added: “We built an industry-leading onboarding and KYC/AML Passport solution for financial institutions who are looking to streamline and scale their business by eliminating redundant processes. As of today, we have focused on fund managers and the broader private wealth channel which is an increasingly important focus for leading financial institutions. We are thrilled to join iCapital and together provide an innovative, tech-enabled identity management service that powers further integration between asset and wealth managers in a seamless experience.”
Details of the agreement were not disclosed.
"iCapital buys Parallel Markets to enhance investment onboarding" was originally created and published by Private Banker International, a GlobalData owned brand.
By Anika Sidhika
