By Nancy Dahlberg
Allocations, the Miami-based fintech that streamlines investment processes for private fund managers, has crossed $1 billion in assets under administration on its platform, up from a quarter of a billion just a year ago, founder and CEO Kingsley Advani told Refresh Miami.
The startup also announced this week that it has secured $5 million in funding, at a $150 million valuation. Investors include Flex Capital, Genesis Accel, Digital Horizon, Whatif Ventures, Garage Syndicate, W5 Group, Edoardo Ermotti, Peter Ko and others, all of them customers of Allocations. To date, all, the company has raised about $12 million, including $4 million raised last year.
Allocations built a fund administration platform to help small funds and SPVs set up and operate at the fast pace of today’s venture capital marketplace as interest in alternative investments continues to surge.
“Retail investors are coming, and we’re here to help them invest,” Advani said. “Individuals worth $1 million or more held $79.6 trillion in investable assets globally in 2020, so the addressable market is quite sizable. We expect that the alternative investments asset class will almost double in the next 4 years to $23 trillion. That means we have plenty of room to grow.”
Supporting family offices, angel groups and venture funds, “Allocations platform empowers emerging fund managers to easily raise capital and gives normal investors the opportunity to invest in companies that are changing the world,” Advani said. Allocations has powered investments for Miami ventures including 305 Ventures, Browder Capital, Flexbase, Pipe and Lula, Advani said.
So far, the startup has powered over 20,000 investments and is in advanced discussions with two large platforms, said Advani.
Advani learned to code at age 11 and started investing from his savings, turning $30K into over $15 million, betting on SpaceX, Coinbase, Robinhood and other companies. While in the Bay Area running a 1,000-member global investor group focused primarily in fintech, AI, space and biotech, he experienced the pain points first-hand that Allocations is aiming to solve. He founded Allocations in 2019.
Advani’s move from San Francisco to Miami in December 2020 was initially sparked by the now famous tweet by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. “We are proud to be headquartered in Miami,” Advani said. “Our continued growth and success we’re seeing is proof the Miami is truly becoming the capital of capital.”
Current market turbulence doesn’t overly concern Advani.
“2021 was a record year for venture and while we are seeing a slight slowdown in both public and private markets in 2022, we still expect VC investments to remain strong. Venture capital is a long term game so the public market volatility may have a small impact, but isn’t majorly concerning to fund managers and investors,” Advani said.
“Thousands of investments have been facilitated through Allocations for innovative companies that are addressing some of the biggest problems in the world right now — cancer, pollution and climate change, mental health, space, biotech and fintech,” he continued.
“Four sectors we’ve seen significant growth in and expect investors to continue to focus on are space, climate tech, biotech, and fintech.“
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Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg and email her at [email protected]
