Tech company WealthForge has found success in servicing investments that most U.S. businesses engage in — and is now poised to hit a major milestone in 2020.
Founded as a startup in the Richmond area a little more than a decade ago, the company originally rolled out an online platform where anyone could invest in small- or medium-sized, for-profit companies looking to secure private investments. WealthForge eventually changed direction and now provides technology solutions developed by regulatory experts to streamline investments into alternative securities. It focuses on funds raised through private placements that usually involve high-net-worth investors.
“It is anything that is not traded on an exchange, and really our focus is on anything that is invested in via paper, so you have to sign a subscription document,” said CEO Bill Robbins.
Last year the company launched Altigo, a straight-through processing technology platform for alternative investments that the company has described as like “Turbo Tax for investments.” While the process of completing private placement investments has traditionally been paper intensive, and as a result, prone to errors, Altigo (an acronym for “alternative investments in good order”) allows investors to electronically view and select available investments with their clients, as well as make sure the electronic documents are compliant with regulations. Documents can then be signed electronically and quickly shared.
“Altigo has made a great difference in streamlining the investment process. We recently had an investment opportunity for one of our investors come down to the wire, and we were able to use the Altigo platform to take the transaction from the start of the subscription to principal approval in less than an hour,” explained Kim Martelli, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations at Capital Square.
The platform has also led to a steep decline in errors and lower cost for sponsors. And because it is a cloud-based system, Altigo allows financial services professionals to be of service to high-net worth clients from anywhere in the world—an important factor with the current state of the world.
The introduction of Altigo has helped WealthForge race towards a fast-approaching milestone: crossing $2 billion in alternative investment transactions. The volume comes from more than 17,000 transactions from the time the company was founded—with more than $700 million occurring in 2019.
Cantor Fitzgerald and Capital Square 1031 were quickly signed on as major sponsors when Altigo launched, while earlier this month Even revealed that five new sponsors, including Legendary Capital, Nelson Partners, SmartStop, and Sovereign Partners, had been added to the platform.
