Happy Tuesday, Fellow Fintechers! 

Hoping all our Fintech Moms had a beautiful Mother’s Day – even if it was remotely with a Zoom call! As we continue to march through this pandemic, things are slowly opening. Here in Georgia, salons opened recently (yours truly supported our local entrepreneurs with blonde locks restored!) and we are looking to open retail here more this coming week. 

Moving on, we start the newsletter with Vasyl Soloshchuk’s Wealthtech Weekly column, with news from LifeYield, Entreda and AdvicePay plus more. We also have major news from AdvisorEngine, who has announced its acquisition by Franklin Templeton last week. Look for more acquisitions of wealthtech firms such as this one to be acquired by investment managers – it’s a trend that continues.

This week we have an interview with an impressive young woman – Sunaina Swaminathan, head of data acquisition At M Science – who shares her perspective on the advantages and disadvantages of being a woman in a leadership role within the financial technology industry. M Science is a porfolio company of Jefferies.

Last week we shared that the customers of fintech darling Motif Investing were going to be handed off to Folio Investing as the firm wound down after blowing through $126M in venture capital, which is still mind-boggling to me. Now we have word that Schwab has acquired the proprietary technology from Motif and will be taking on part of their personnel. It’s an interesting play.

Tifin is an interesting firm many may not know of – a combined VC and accelerator for the fintech market, with an emphasis on wealthtech. Portfolio wealthtech firms include 55ip, Magnifi, Positvly and more. The firm has added 3 new high profile officers. This is one to watch.

This week we also learn that Addpar is rolling out a new digital alternatives marketplace, BNY Mellon has partnered with Arria NLG to inject its platforms with artificial intelligence (very cool!), and Utah-based wealthtech AdvisorPeak has reopened its headquarters office (as of 5/4), though many employees are still working from home 1-2 days per week and others continue to work remotely, as they did before the pandemic hit. Great to hear.

Finally, Brian Ross, CEO of trading platform Flyer has authored a piece for FA on how advisors should utilize APIs to improve their portfolio offerings for customers with discretionary accounts. Folks you have no choice but to amp up your tech platform these days! 

We’re wrapping up with a special shout out to FA magazine Senior Editor Chris Robbins who has, once again, penned the majority of the content featured in this week’s newsletter, with his usual finesse and extensive knowledge of the wealthtech category. Have a great week, folks!

Yours in Fintech,
Cindy Taylor