A former Elliott investment professional is launching a wealth management product targeting younger, underserved high-net worth individuals in the UK.
Alexis Augier, 29, aims to attract sophisticated investors in the finance or tech industry who have money but are “not wealthy enough for UBS,” he said. Vega, a digital platform that seeks to bridge that gap in the market, launches on Tuesday with $8.3 million in seed capital.
The firm will target individuals with a net worth of between £500,000 ($609,000) and £10 million, with a minimum ticket size of £100,000. It will allow clients to invest as institutional investors in both public and private markets, from fixed income and equities to commodities.
“We’re going to bring the tools of the high-net worth individuals to a broader market,” said Augier in an interview prior to the launch.
Initial funding comes from venture capital firms like Motive Ventures, Picus Capital and Citi Ventures and more than 60 senior financial services and FinTech executives.
Vega will market the product in the UK at first, but it’s seeking authorization to expand in continental Europe by early next year.
By then it also hopes to launch a product allowing clients to raise cash based on the value of their investments.
“Unless you’re a client of big banks, it’s very difficult to borrow against your assets because there’s no liquidity because who’s going to underwrite that,” said Augier, who was an associate at KKR before joining Elliott. It’s also working to create a tool to help clients structure those investments “in a more sophisticated way” for tax purposes, he added.
For sourcing the investments, the firm will take advantage of its venture capital and angel-investor backers and their relationships to form partnerships, said Augier.
The Vega team consists of 17 people, including Alfonso Bauzá de Mirabó, who was previously at Blackstone Real Estate, and Anton Batiaev, who was Revolut’s head of trading platform according to his LinkedIn profile.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.