Hamilton Lane has made a strategic investment in CAIS, an alternative investment platform that is used by 5,300 unique advisor firms/teams who oversee more than $2.5 trillion in network assets.
Since inception CAIS has facilitated more than $17 billion in transaction volume and with the most recent financing now has an enterprise valuation exceeding $1.1 billion.
Terms of the investment were not disclosed, but other existing CAIS investors participating in the funding round includes: Apollo, Motive Partners, Franklin Templeton, Reverence Capital Partners and Stone Point Ventures.
According to CAIS executives, the fresh capital infusion will help ‘modernize’ how the independent advisor community can access and learn about alternative investments all the while connecting asset managers with the multi-trillion-dollar private wealth channel. The retail potential for alternatives has grown in recent years with the proliferation of online platforms such as CAIS, which recently found in a survey that 84% of financial advisors are recommending alternatives to clients who meet accredited investor requirements.
“We are seeing significant macroeconomic tailwinds that highlight the urgency for improved access to alternative investments, especially for the independent wealth and non-institutional channels,” said Erik Hirsch, vice chairman and head of strategic initiatives at Hamilton Lane. “We are big believers that technology can serve as a powerful tool in solving for some of the traditional accessibility challenges, and look forward to supporting CAIS in that shared goal.”
Hamilton Lane intends to onboard some of its evergreen and closed-end products to the CAIS platform over time.
“We are thrilled to welcome another strong partner that shares our mission to level the playing field for RIAs, independent broker dealers, aggregators, and custodians looking to allocate to alternative investments,” said Matt Brown, founder and CEO of CAIS. “Hamilton Lane brings tremendous value to CAIS as a strategic partner that is well-versed across private markets investing and data-driven innovation.”
