1. Tell us a bit about yourself / your co-founder
Alex Lu – 9yr trading Fixed Income derivatives with Barclays Capital & JP Morgan; 6yr private market investing with a Private Family office. Engineering & Math background.
Tom Whale – ex-head of engineering at a large listed company, scaled a platform from 0 to 8 million users.
2. The Thesis
Every financial service company that works with or invests in companies needs to track their portfolio. There are many great legacy tools like iLevel/eFront,
But portfolio management requirements have significantly changed over the past few years because of the rise of sustainability regulations, which require seamless integration of sustainability data into financial decisions, risk management and reporting, and existing solutions fall short of. In addition, these legacy solutions are clunky, costly, difficult to implement and inflexible to the ever-changing sustainability landscape.
That’s why we built PortF. PortF is the next-generation portfolio management system for the alternative asset class with Sustainability at its core.
3. What problem or opportunity do you address, and for which target customers?
The portfolio management market is estimated to be 10bn by 2030. the segment we are in today is 2bn. PortF has gone to market serving clients with high volume and high impact requirements, such as government-backed funds and impactful PE/VC. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Sooner or later, all the players in the financial industry need to report financial and non-financial information holistically.
4. Who are your competitors and what is your USP?
We come across customers churning on iLevel/eFront, and competed and won in tenders against Dynamo/Finbourne. Our USP is:
a. Holistic solution – covering both financial data tracking and non-financial data under one roof
b. Workflow automation assisted by AI data extraction
c. Highly flexible that address the needs for changing nature in ESG/Sustainability reporting requirements
5. What is your current stage and traction?
- Serving currently in the UK funds and national investment bank, with over £1m booked revenue.
- Won £1m project from Innovate UK. Also won grants with EIT Digital/Horizon.
- Partnership with an international law firm on ESG regulatory solutions, currently piloting with live clients.
- Partnership with a dominant industry player for the portfolio management solution, in discussion.
- Exclusive partnership with a distribution partner for the listed market in the UK, launching in Q4.
- Short-listed by a European bank for ESG solution.
6. What are your plans for the next 6-18 months and how can our network help?
We are looking to grow outside the UK:
a. serving government-backed funds needing to track ROI return and social impact/sustainability
b. PE funds need to track financial and non-financial metrics cost-effectively to their LPs and regulators (tier 2&3)
c. Distribution partner
7. What’s on your bookshelf or podcast app?
Book: Crossing the Chasm; Debt;
Podcast: Prof G; FT briefing; Economist; Pivot; Odd Lots; Hidden Brain; a16z; Ted Radio Hour; Fast Money