After a fundraising round in the autumn of 2023, we talk to the CEO and founder of a new wealth management business that says it is bridging a gap between the private client and institutional worlds. Initially focused on the UK, the business intends to spread into Western Europe, and possibly further afield.

A group of former wealth and financial technology executives have teamed up to bridge a gap between the world of private wealth and institutional wealth management. 

Launched last September with more than $8 million in equity investment from venture capital and angel investors, the “bridge” is called Vega Investment. 

UK-based Vega says its users can invest across the asset allocation spectrum, covering private asset classes such as private equity, venture capital, private credit, and real assets, as well as public equities, fixed income, and commodities. What is different, it says, is that unlike legacy platforms focused on single-fund access, Vega uses technology to construct diversified portfolios that combine alternative asset managers. This means that users can invest in private markets efficiently, and put this snugly alongside listed stocks in a single platform.

Whatever else Vega is, it appears to be another riff in an increasingly loud tune being heard across the wealth management industry: using technology to get clients/advisors into alternative investments efficiently, while removing some of the clunkier aspects of old-style businesses. With regulatory and other costs rising all the time, it is easy to see the appeal.

The firm is keen to stress that its offering is far more than a case of older institutions reinventing themselves. This is an offering that comes from a clean sheet of paper.

“Through a single end-to-end platform, Vega elevates wealth advisors across product provision, operations and user experience so that they can differentiate themselves in the open race to appeal to the new generation of affluent and high net worth individuals,” Alexis Augier, founder and CEO of Vega, told WealthBriefing in a recent interview. 

"We believe wealth is about to go through what banking went through a decade ago in terms of digital disruption, so building yet another bland advisor tool just won’t do the trick – this needs to be a truly consumer-grade solution that gives advisors an edge when serving clients,” Augier continued. 

While initially focused on the UK market, Augier said his colleagues are in advanced discussions with potential clients in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, so we will be expanding there “soon.” “The goal is to over time become the leading wealthtech player in EMEA,” he said. 

Augier comes from a background in the alternative investment world. He worked at Elliott, as part of the hedge fund event-driven investment team, where he focused on a broad range of public and private market strategies, including equity activism, risk arbitrage and opportunistic credit. Augier previously spent four years at KKR, investing across private equity and credit. He started his career at Goldman Sachs. 

How new is the business model? Are there parallels with firms such as Addepar in the US, for example?

“Wealthtech innovation to date has largely been focused on fragmented point solutions, inadvertently escalating operational complexities and cost for advisors. Advancements in infrastructure and AI are paving the way for a consolidated, consumer-grade data and operations platform acting as a true advisor co-pilot while significantly reducing costs,” Augier said. “We are indirectly competing with a bunch of point solutions or legacy systems but we really place rebundling at the core of our product philosophy: to truly change the game for advisors we believe a unified operating system is needed.”

Augier said there have been new offerings in the business-to-client space such as Arta Finance in the US. In the business-to-business area, however, specific solutions remain stuck in silos, he said. (Arta Finance has built a digital family office platform for all qualified investors in the US.)

"As a new generation of high net worth individuals emerges, we are building the financial products and technological infrastructure the wealth management industry needs to serve them," says Alexis Augier, founder and CEO of Vega. "Our goal is to provide a unified wealth management platform that transforms the experience for end users while equipping advisors with institutional-grade solutions."

Backers and founders
Vega's founding team consists of figures at investment firms such as Elliott, Blackstone, KKR, and Goldman Sachs, along with product and engineering specialists from fintechs such as Revolut and Trade Republic. The firm is backed by Motive Ventures, Picus Capital, Citi Ventures, No Label Ventures, and over 60 angel investors. 

Asked if Vega is mulling more fundraising, Augier said the business has raised enough capital to grow over the next couple of years but he does not dismiss the idea of raising more capital later on. 

The moniker “Vega” comes from one of the “brightest stars” in the sky; the term is also an important concept in financial derivatives, Augier added.