Neovest is a global, multi-broker electronic trading platform that specializes in Equities, futures, options, and FX markets. One integrated ecosystem, where you can trade the assets you want, when you want – all from a single screen.
June 24, 2024
Neovest, a US company acquired by JPMorgan in 2005, recently completed a strategic acquisition of the technology offering of LayerOne Financial (“LayerOne”), a spinout from Fortress Investment Group, to offer the global hedge fund community a comprehensive technology solution for their investment management lifecycle needs. The newly integrated suite of modular Neovest products will be known as ‘PortfolioOne’.
“The acquisition process involved reviewing 15 technology systems across the industry. We consulted our clients, and they recommended expanding our offering to allow them to address their needs across their investment lifecycle, as this is where they would see the most value added,” says Jimmi Shah, CEO of Neovest. This growth-oriented acquisition enhances Neovest’s product completeness by integrating LayerOne’s robust compliance and risk modules for portfolio management, complementing Neovest’s existing strengths in execution management.
“Neovest was always renowned for its user-friendly interface that offers traders and portfolio managers advanced cross-asset execution management capabilities. The acquisition now allows us to offer our hedge fund clients a modular platform to allow them to perform their portfolio modelling, risk assessment, stress testing and error reduction in complex asset classes, as well as solving other challenges in their investment management lifecycle,” says Shah.
“Our primary focus has always been hedge funds, so the client fit is well aligned,” Shah explains. The majority of LayerOne’s clients are hedge funds, and 75% of Neovest’s 500 clients fall into this category, with some overlap in hedge fund clientele.
Neovest will continue serving clients globally, ranging from smaller funds managing USD 75 million, to the largest firms handling USD 100 billion or more. The addressable market is now much greater because the combined technology offering can accommodate a broader array of clients’ investment strategies and asset classes. Historically, Neovest mainly served clients’ equity long/short or global macro strategies, but now it can service clients with credit, multi-asset and multi-strategy objectives. LayerOne’s cross asset technology capabilities include bonds, interest rates and bank debt, amongst others. “Connectivity to various brokers and associated market data can cover extensive level one, two and three data across equities, futures and credit, including bank debt and OTC derivatives,” explains Shah.
Neovest continues to expand its client base beyond the US, securing mandates in Europe, including the UK and the Nordics, Asia and the Middle East. The office distribution of the combined firm has also become more global and less US-centric. Previously, Neovest staff were primarily based in the US, with headquarters in Orem, Utah, but now the 225 employees are almost evenly split between the US and international locations, including Europe and South America.
Innovation is guided by a combination of top-down, corporate-level strategic plans and bottom-up, spontaneous responses to specific requests from individual clients. “Development sandboxes are divided into 40% strategic initiatives, such as exploring the ability to support client activity in new asset classes; 10% technology, which is essential; and 50% initiatives driven by client feedback,” explains Shah.
Additionally, the evolution of innovation is structured around four key pillars that support ongoing workstreams, each progressing at its own pace. “We use an agile methodology with rolling quarterly roadmaps to track progress in each area,” says Shah. These four pillars were in place before the LayerOne acquisition but have since been expanded in scope and scale.
“Neovest has always embraced modularity. This can be illustrated by the sheer number of integrations we have made to make our clients’ workflow easier and more complete,” says Shah.
Neovest’s new suite of products will be called ‘PortfolioOne’ and it consists of 8 individual modules. These modules can be sliced and diced in a few ways, including: Portfolio Management, Order Management, Execution Management, Risk Management, Compliance, Post-trade Operations, General Ledger/ABOR and Data Management. For more details about Neovest’s product suite, please visit www.neovest.com.
If you would like to see the original article, please visit: https://thehedgefundjournal.com/neovests-strategic-acquisition-of-layerone-financial/
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