Addepar acquires alt investment platform

Wealth management platforms find themselves in a steady buying spree, snapping up tech firms that can give them extra features to offer clients.

Built up by veterans from the CIA-backed data mining firm Palantir Technologies, Addepar already boasts some significant technology chops.

Still, the Mountain View, California-based wealth management platform announced on Wednesday its acquisition of AltX, a machine learning platform aimed at alt investments.

The addition "complements Addepar's solutions for family offices, RIAs, private banks, wirehouses and large allocators," stated Addepar CEO Eric Poirer.

The firm says that alternative investments account for 20% of over $600 billion of assets currently on its platform.

Addepar's software is currently used by Morgan Stanley's Private Wealth Management unit, in addition to over 200 wealth managers, family offices and banks.

Addepar's acquisition is the latest deal struck by wealth management platforms this year.

Earlier this month, WisdomTree-backed enterprise platform provider AdvisorEngine purchased Kredible, an online reputation management tool, for an undisclosed price. The move follows its February acquisition of client-adviser collaboration tool Wealthminder.

In April, Oranj took a majority ownership in rebalancing software firm TradeWarrior.

A recent report by Ernst and Young found that over half of the companies it surveyed were at least considering an alliance with a fintech firm to reduce costs, while another 23% were contemplating acquiring a competing fintech firm.

But in terms of additional investment into automated advice platform, there's less money to be had outside of large financial institutions making deals to add capabilities, notes Bill Winterberg, founder of the wealth management industry blog FPPad.com.

"One thing is for sure: VC investments in automated investing as well as acquisition activity has dried up quickly over the past 12 months," he says.