On Monday, global fintech InvestCloud announced it has acquired London-based rplan Limited for $20 million. According to InvestCloud, rplan is a provider of client engagement technology to support investment propositions for web and mobile. The company’s client base includes four of the top eight UK institutional asset managers.
InvestCloud reported that the acquisition will see rplan’s capabilities made available to InvestCloud’s global client base of more than 700 firms. rplan’s technology is described as modern, API-based and cloud-native, and addresses the requirements of a heavily regulated and international marketplace. While sharing more details about the acquisition, John Wise, Chairman and CEO of InvestCloud, stated:
“The success of rplan’s solution is indicative of a changing institutional asset management industry. In the UK, D2C has been popular for several years, and hence more common as a channel. In the US, fund managers have been traditionally concerned about channel conflict. But the success of Vanguard with significant inflows is changing the landscape and the approach of other US fund managers. Institutional asset management is an important and growing segment for InvestCloud. The writing is on the wall: asset managers are trending toward multi-channel financial distribution that includes D2C solutions. Embracing D2C is a smart play for asset managers given the success of companies like Vanguard. InvestCloud D2C and other digital product channels will be combined with rplan product strengths. They truly complement the InvestCloud Digital Platform and will bolster our successes in this space.”
Andy Creak, Director at rplan, also commented:
“We are very excited to be part of the InvestCloud platform. InvestCloud has been extremely successful in the Americas, supplying the largest financial institutions in the US and Canada. rplan has the most advanced D2C solution in the UK. We look forward to combining the InvestCloud platform and financial resources with our own solution and know-how to dominate the D2C market globally.”
