Despite days of overall market turmoil, there is some positive news in the fintech sector as startup incubator and holding company TIFIN announced the close of its $109 million Series D funding round.
The firm has been going gangbusters the last two years and announced, along with the latest funding, a new valuation of $842 million. It has only been seven months since the incubator, home to Magnifi, Clout, Louise, PlanIQ and several other startups and acquisitions (Totum Risk, myFinancialAnswers and Qualis Capital, among others) supporting the wealth management landscape, announced its $47 million Series C.
In its latest funding, Franklin Templeton, (specifically Franklin Resources) and Motive Partners, have joined investors Hamilton Lane, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Morningstar and Broadridge that have participated in TIFIN'S previous rounds.
TIFIN, which was previously known as Tifin Group, has several areas of expertise and business groups, all of which share resources, which include its own implementations of artificial intelligence such as machine learning and natural language processing.
These technologies are meant to improve personalization efforts at TIFIN'S growing roster of wealth management firm clients and includes TIFIN Wealth, and the analytics and intelligence platform Distill, used by asset managers.
Other areas of focus at TIFIN include its digital distribution platform Magnifi, which is a search-powered marketplace for investments, as well as Financial Answers, a demand and data generation platform for advice and investments.
The additional funding is expected to go toward growth efforts and specifically some emphasis on “Magnifi’s consumer platform, Distill’s expansion with asset and wealth enterprises,” and TIFIN'S expansion outside the United States.
Rob Heyvaert, founder and managing partner of Motive Partners, will join the TIFIN board as part of the Series D transaction. He joins other notable board members—Ark Investment’s Cathie Wood and former Schwab CEO and former Hightower Advisors chairman David Pottruck (who serves as executive co-chairman of Magnifi's board).
“Wealth-tech and personalized advice are rapidly reshaping how financial solutions are delivered,” said Jenny Johnson, president and CEO of Franklin Templeton, in the announcement. “As a strategic investor, we are excited to partner with TIFIN on developing cutting edge digital solutions powered by a wide range of investment strategies, sophisticated algorithms and scalable technology.”
This is not Franklin’s first investment in the wealthtech arena, having acquired digital wealth platform and technology provider AdvisorEngine Inc. in May 2020. AdvisorEngine itself had acquired the popular RIA customer relationship management application Junxure in 2018. In addition to CRM, AdvisorEngine provides RIAs and broker/dealers with portfolio management, reporting, marketing, a turnkey robo advisor offering and billing technology, among other services.