Apollo and Hamilton Lane launch blockchain investment vehicles with Figure

Asset managers Apollo Global Management and Hamilton Lane are launching investment vehicles on the blockchain using technology developed by fintech company Figure.

The investment firms will leverage Figure’s Digital Fund Services (DFS) platform, which will support on-chain fund subscriptions as well as ongoing fund operations and administration, Figure said in a statement. 

Investors will also benefit from DFS’s universal passporting feature, which enables an anonymized record of verified know-your-customer credentials to be stored on-chain and used across multiple funds, the company said.

Figure is a fintech platform that provides financial services through its own blockchain Provenance. It was founded by Mike Cagney, who previously founded the personal finance company Sofi.

The startup, last valued at $3.2 billion, announced a partnership with Apollo to collaborate on a series of blockchain-enabled initiatives in July 2021. The alternative asset manager, which oversees $523 billion in assets under management, recently partnered with crypto custodian Anchorage Digital, which will store a large majority of the digital assets the firm handles for its clients.

Christine Moy, a former top executive in JP Morgan’s crypto team, joined Apollo in April as a partner to head up the investment firm’s digital-asset strategy.

Tokenized funds

Hamilton Lane, which has $823.9 billion in assets under management, also recently tokenized three funds in partnership with Securitize.

Several other investment firms have also been exploring the use of blockchain technology to improve investment offerings. Private equity giant KKR has been looking at tokenizing funds on the Avalanche blockchain, while UK investment manager Abrdn joined the Hedera network’s governing council.

Clients on Figure’s DFS platform will benefit from its alternative trading system for secondary transactions of blockchain-based fund interests, which creates the opportunity for improved liquidity, the company said.

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