Imagine There Was a One-Stop-Shop for Alternative Investments

„If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

—African proverb “

I speak to a lot of financial advisors and family offices these days. Having been a manager of alternative investments for well over a decade myself, our paths tend to cross over time. Most recently, in my conversation with an independent financial advisor, I got preempted when making my passionate case for our Stableton Marketplace, where I am a founding partner.

Just as I was getting about to explain why and how our business model thrives as a fintech-enabled managed marketplace for alternative investments, she surprised me with this African proverb.

The traditional financial services industry has gone through a rough patch

What surprised me was that she looked at the emergence of fintech and presumably new business models as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Let’s remind ourselves that the financial advisory and private wealth business model was battered over the last decade as operating costs soared due to regulatory pressures and revenues dwindled for many in light of ever-increasing competition.

Being caught between a rock and a hard place

The sad truth lies in the simple fact that, until recently, most investors either had no or only limited access to alternative investment strategies, lucrative investment opportunities or are left with the option to invest in highly crowded deals.

In the case of venture investments, companies are growing increasingly selective in terms of investor type and profile. It is also linked to the fact that most investors don’t see enough investment opportunities and deals to make informed investment decisions.

The challenges of getting efficient access to alternative investments would not end there:

• relatively high minimum investments

• endless paperwork

• calls and physical meetings

• lack of aggregate reporting

• limited availability and access to data and information

• an intransparent and fragmented market

• expensive gatekeepers

Given the fragmentation of alternatives and the private market, performing due diligence and identifying the best-suited investment possible within a specific investment universe can be a daunting challenge compared to public markets.

The challenge of seeing enough deals and not ending up with lemons

Since the private market business is highly dependent on the number of investments and number of deals you see and can properly vet, the chance to end up with a lemon still is relatively high(a transaction industry insiders happily pass on).

This is mostly applicable to venture capital and private equity, where it is vital to be selective but diversified at the same time.

Getting in front of the parade

In this environment, the advisor I mentioned before saw the potential to position herself as a frontrunner in a broader community that would expand her network and, more importantly, increase the reach of her services through an extended product range to further client segments. Clients, she would not have been able to convince or did not even consider approaching in the past without her new marketplace toolset.

Now, the acid test for all those new business ideas: Are they helping us focus on what we do best?

Having access to marketplaces like the one Stableton operates will not only extend an investor’s toolset to conquer new markets. The goal is to make it easier to discover opportunities, execute transactions, and to receive consolidated reporting. In short, it will allow investors (or their advisors) to focus more effectively on their actual job.

While many financial services marketplaces have claimed to increase the revenue side and reduce the cost side of a client’s business, argueably no one has provided professional investors and wealthy families and individuals that scale and quality of access to alternative investments.

Ongoing investments bring new challenges

Once an investment decision with a specific provider is made, the challenges continue. Investments need to be monitored. What defines, or better, who determines a successful investment? Do you have access to enough information to keep your clients apprised of their holdings and make recommendations if and when the investment should be increased or exited? Should one invest with the same alternative investment manager again?

The Stableton Marketplace is here to assist you across your research, decision, and monitoring process

At Stableton, our vision is to enable prosperity and positive impact from alternatives. We imagine an investment universe where investment research is a lively, even rewarding, experience, where access to compelling investments is the norm, and where investors can count on a critical mass of high-quality and suitable investments.

Our mission is to provide investors with a one-stop-shop for alternative investments

Offering a one-stop-shop for alternative investments means giving you access to various curated provider-independent bankable products and strategies. And without missing out on being able to collaborate with different providers. It also means active deal sourcing, due diligence, and providing the right structures in a cost-effective and customizable way.

Enter the Stableton Marketplace, a fully digital platform for all your alternative investment needs

Accessing our fully digital Stableton marketplace means there is no need for multiple platforms and provider logins. And as our feature set grows, this investor gateway to alternatives will transform into a fully-fledged fintech enabled market network for alternative investments connecting all parties involved during the whole investment process.

The platform contains various types of alternative investment asset classes from a wide range of providers. Whether it be world-class hedge funds, venture capital co-investment opportunities from early-stage to pre-IPO, alternative lending with Europe’s leading specialized loan origination platforms, real estate investments, or digital assets and crypto strategies: Stableton members will be able to find and compare these strategies on the marketplace.

A constant stream of new, exciting investment ideas

The Stableton marketplace will not only provide precise suggestions based on a user’s previously determined needs and constraints, but it also aims to inspire them by suggesting new investment ideas, backed by unique and achievable content.

Conducting due diligence is not supposed to be fun. But it can be

Researching investments, their managers, and other service providers can be made very efficient. The platform was designed to be navigated intuitively, and product details are shown transparently. Legal and other notices are short and to the point. We don’t like small print either.

A quick tour of the Stableton Marketplace

Today, the Stableton Marketplace features attractive, actively screened, and managed investment opportunities. The investment subscription process has been seamlessly integrated, and our bankable products can typically be bought at any Swiss bank. Investments can easily be monitored during their lifetime, and reporting functions will be available soon.

Two-tracked development ensures stability while new functionalities are being added over time

As the marketplace is being expanded, the development team is continuously improving it with new and enhanced features and content, such as stories, news, announcements, special thematic reports, a portfolio builder, simulation tools (where different scenarios can be visualized), secondary market and liquidity desk functionalities and it will even support digital white-label solutions for customizable product issuances.

When using the Stableton Marketplace, you have the relevant alternative investment universe at a glance. Most importantly, investors and providers have access to a community and can extend their network. But it is not only about meeting other investors and extending the reach, but it is also about getting exposure to new ideas, business models and exciting, and profitable ways of investing.