CircleBlack to Acquire AssetBookCircleBlack to Acquire AssetBook
In a memo sent to AssetBook advisor clients, the performance reporting tech company said it planned to "combine operations" with CircleBlack “in the very near future.”
CircleBlack, a portfolio management and performance reporting system, is set to acquire AssetBook, another performance reporting tech company, according to a memo obtained by WealthManagement.com.
In the memo sent to AssetBook’s advisor clients, Ravi Dattani, an advisor and investor in the company, said AssetBook plans to combine operations with CircleBlack “in the very near future.”
“Following the transition, you can expect to receive the same great service that you have always had with AssetBook, and with the same loyal employees who have been with AssetBook for many years,” he wrote.
Dattani and CircleBlack President and CEO Lincoln Ross declined to comment further for this story.
According to a Kitces.com survey of advisor technology, AssetBook had 1.1% market share in the performance reporting space in 2023. Orion had the highest market share, at nearly 20%. CircleBlack was not rated in the report, though it has a larger market presence than AssetBook, according to those familiar with the companies. Neither company gives specific user or asset numbers,
AssetBook was founded in 2007 by software developers Rob Major and Ken Park, primarily as a more affordable tool for smaller RIAs. Over the last several years, the firm’s flagship portfolio management and reporting platform, Pulse, was rebuilt and migrated to a fully cloud-based system running on Microsoft Azure.
In 2022, the company launched Valian, its client engagement application. Valian’s SEC-compliant chat feature can facilitate live, in-app conversations between advisors and clients. It includes a texting feature that aims to ensure text communications are documented and recorded for compliance purposes.
Marwa Zakharia, who took over as CEO of AssetBook in 2020, recently stepped down from her role.
CircleBlack has remained out of the public eye since Ross took over. At the time, he said CircleBlack would “focus on evolving the platform to deliver the most compelling advisor and investor experience in wealthtech.” He also said he’d continue investing in “modular” technology.
In 2020, CircleBlack’s founder and CEO John Michel died suddenly at age 62. One of the creators of the Merrill Edge platform, Michel started BloombergBlack in 2013, an initiative born out of Bloomberg, the market data and news company. Months after its launch it was scrapped and CircleBlack was born with “substantially different” technology. The software then evolved to incorporate features like account aggregation and reporting.
Private equity firm Long Arc Capital acquired a majority stake in CircleBlack in 2020.
The company has raised $8.25 million in a Series B funding round in 2023, according to CrunchBase.com.
About the Author
You May Also Like
