investment-marketplace
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CAIS Built a $2 Billion Business Out of Wall Street's Least Glamorous Problem
Independent advisors wanted private markets. What they lacked was the institutional plumbing. CAIS spent 17 years assembling access, diligence, education and paperwork into one operating system - and turned the boring middle into a company valued above $2 billion.
FinBursa
FinBursa is an AI-native operating platform for private markets, built in the Dubai International Financial Centre. It connects capital seekers, advisors and qualified investors on one neutral, integrated system, replacing scattered CRMs, spreadsheets and ad-hoc data rooms with deal management, fundraising, virtual data rooms and AI agents. The platform charges no success fees on its marketplace and focuses on opening private-market access across the Middle East and emerging markets.
VentureCrowd
VentureCrowd is one of Australia's original equity crowdfunding platforms, launched in Sydney in 2013 out of alternative investment manager Artesian. It lets everyday and wholesale investors put money - from as little as A$250 - into early-stage startups, property developments and impact-focused ventures that were once the preserve of institutional venture capital. Led by co-founder and CEO Steve Maarbani, a former PwC partner and corporate lawyer, the platform has channelled over A$300 million into private companies, construction projects and sidecar funds, positioning itself as a bridge between the Australian 'crowd' and high-growth private markets.
Percent
Percent is a New York-based fintech company building the technology infrastructure for the private credit market. Its platform digitizes the full lifecycle of private credit transactions - sourcing, structuring, syndication, surveillance and servicing - connecting corporate and asset-based borrowers, underwriters and accredited investors on a single, transparent marketplace. Founded in 2018 (originally as Cadence) by Nelson Chu, Percent has powered roughly $2 billion in transaction volume and offers short-duration, high-yield private credit deals with lower minimums than traditional channels.
iCapital
iCapital is a New York-based financial technology platform that opens private-market and alternative investments - private equity, hedge funds, private credit, real estate, structured investments and annuities - to wealth advisors and their high-net-worth clients. Founded in 2013, it replaced the paperwork-heavy, high-minimum world of alternatives with an end-to-end digital infrastructure connecting asset managers and wealth managers, and now services more than $1 trillion in client assets across 2,100-plus funds for roughly 118,000 financial professionals.