Amerant Bancorp Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida. The Company operates through its subsidiaries, Amerant Bank, N.A. (the ''Bank''), Amerant Investments, Inc. and Amerant Trust, N.A. The Company provides individuals and businesses in the U.S., as well as select international clients, with deposit, credit and wealth management services. The Bank, which has operated for 40 years, is the largest community bank headquartered in Florida. The Bank operates 23 banking centers - 15 in South Florida and 8 in the Houston, Texas area - and loan production offices in Dallas, Texas and New York, New York.

Amerant Bancorp

Mendon Venture Partners is a venture capital investment firm focused on the intersection of innovative technology and traditional banks.

Mendon Venture Partners

South Rose Capital is an investment firm.

South Rose Capital

Equity Bancshares, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Equity Bank that provides a range of financial services.

Equity BancShares

Castle Creek Capital, a private equity firm, has joined forces with Launchpad Capital.

Castlecreek launchpad fund

Marstone Inc.

Marstone is the leading, independent provider of enterprise-ready, digital wealth management solutions. Powered by Marstone™, our fully customizable and turnkey platform, enables banks, investment advisors, and financial institutions of all sizes to acquire and retain clients who seek straightforward digital advice for investing. A tool for digital transformation, its fully paperless workflows enable back-office efficiencies.

Marstone is a digital wealth solutions provider that provides a platform that allows users to build a personalized portfolio tailored to their objectives based on questionnaires. These portfolios can be integrated using a user’s own institution’s models or models by Marstone’s partners.

Retail investors demanding sophisticated passive investment strategies are looking for an edge.

Retail Trading Infrastructure

Marstone

Hartigan fully invested in her fintech firm Marstone Inc.

Marstone is a digital wealth solutions provider that provides a platform that allows users to build a personalized portfolio tailored to their objectives based on questionnaires. These portfolios can be integrated using a user’s own institution’s models or models by Marstone’s partners.Marstone has several partnerships with firms that either use the tool as a technology partner, an investment advisor, or a sub-advisor. The company most recently entered into a partnership with Amerant Bancorp in May 2021, through which Amerant Bancorp will leverage Marstone’s platform to provide more personalized services to its customers. Similar partners include BlackRock, HSBC, Fiserv, Detalus Advisors and Interactive Brokers, among others.Funding and financialsIn January 2024, Marstone raised USD 8 million in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/26141">Series B funding</a> co-led by Mendon Venture Partners and South Rose Capital. The funding will be used to support offering new fee-based revenue generating products for financial institutions via digital channels.

Ellevest is a hybrid investment management platform that specifically targets women, with an algorithm that takes into account gender-specific factors such as career breaks, longer life expectancy, and income differences.Ellevest currently offers services under three categories: Ellevest Essential (at a monthly fee of USD 1), Ellevest Plus (USD 5 per month), and Ellevest Executive (USD 9 per month). All three offerings include portfolio customization, banking services (spending and savings accounts), access to human advisors, and on-demand learning for subjects such as investing, career, and money. Ellevest Plus is more costly because it handles retirement accounts for clients. Meanwhile, Ellevest Executive handles both retirement accounts and investment management for multiple goals. The company also offers private wealth management services for clients who wish to invest USD 1 million or more through the platform. A dedicated advisor will work together with clients to create investment plans to meet their goals.Ellevest reported assets under management (AUM) of USD 1.4 billion as of December 2021, growing 44% during the year.In April 2022, Ellevest raised USD 53 million in Series B <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9622?industryIds=28">funding </a>co-led by BMO and Contour Venture Partners. The company planned to use the funds to expand its product offering and provide personalized coaching.

Ellevest

ComposedPro is a digital investment advisor that handles clients’ investment accounts at their employers (such as employer-sponsored accounts) as well as private investment accounts, focusing on low cost Employer-Coordinated Portfolios. The company oversees USD 25 million in total assets over 181 customer accounts as of the company’s Q2 2020 filing. ComposedPro manages half of the company’s accounts on a discretionary basis, meaning an investment advisor has the discretion to make buy and sell decisions for a client’s account. ComposedPro also has 46 non-discretionary accounts totalling USD 7.9 million in assets. The average investment account size is USD 138,222 placed across exchangeable assets such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), equities, bonds, and options.

ComposedPro

Guideline provides automated investment management services for employer-sponsored retirement accounts. The services also include plan set-up and administration, enrollment and education, recordkeeping, compliance with Retirement Income Security Act, and reporting.As of July 2023, Guideline had assets under management (AUM) of over USD 9 billion and over 350 employees. The company stated that it is the only provider that does not charge plan participants (i.e. employees) with any fees. Guideline charges the employers with a straightforward pricing of one flat fee per participant, in contrast to the asset-based fee model predominant in the industry (i.e. fee is charged on account balances). The standard service has a base fee of USD 49 per month and an additional USD 8 per participant. The standard service includes unlimited phone/email support to both plan participants and employers. For prime service, access to a dedicated account manager is available at a higher base fee of USD 129 and an additional fee of USD 8 per participant. In addition, the company stated that it has a low mutual fund expense ratio, at 0.08%. It purchases mutual funds from Vanguard and other fund providers.Funding and financialsIn June 2021, Guideline raised USD 200 million in funding led by General Atlantic. The company intends to utilize the funding to broaden its 401(k) offerings and introduce new retirement plan solutions.

Guideline

Based in Plano, Texas, AssetBuilder is a robo-advisory company that develops investment portfolios based on the Fama/French school of thought, using low-cost active index funds. It has Dimensional Fund Advisors (the eighth largest fund company in the world as of September 2019) as its funding partner. Human advisors are available to provide investing guidance. As of April 2019, the firm’s assets under management (AUM) amounted to USD 765.9 million. The firm’s business model relies on a fee-only structure, meaning a customer solely pays AssetBuilder to create and manage investments (the company does not receive product-specific commission). The minimum investment for AssetBuilder is USD 50,000 with an asset management fee ranging from 0.24% to 0.45%; the higher the investment, the lower the fee. Though the firm does not have a setup fee, it requires a custodial cost for setting up a portfolio of USD 11.95 per trade for each recommended mutual fund. Most of the platform’s portfolios require about 11 to 14 mutual funds, costing about USD 131.45 to USD 167.30 to open an account.

AssetBuilder

Based in Canada, Smart Money Invest provides portfolio management services to individual clients, advisors, and employers (such as group saving plans for retirement). Human advisors are available to serve individual investors.The company provides financial tools to develop a long-term financial strategy by calculating net worth, setting a budget, managing investment accounts, and planning for retirement.

Smart Money Invest

Robo advisory startups that offer automated investment services directly to individuals solely via digital platforms.

Robo advisory startups that offer automated investment services to individuals via both digital platforms and human financial advisors.

Provide solutions for financial advisors/asset managers to automate wealth management and administration functions.

Robo advisory startups that offer automated investment services to businesses via both digital platforms and human financial advisors.

Provides solutions for financial institutions to set up their own robo-advisory function and offer services to clients.

Startups that offer online platforms for investors to trade various securities such as stocks, ETFs, and options directly via the platform

Operates a B2B SaaS model to support financial institution in offering various investment related services

Leverages AI/ML to automate allocation and management of investment funds to cater to retail investors

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 Marstone, a digital investment management platform, recently secured $8 million in a Series B funding round. This round was co-led by Mendon Venture Partners and South Rose Capital. The funding will be used to expand on their offerings by introducing new fee-based products aimed at generating revenue for financial institutions through digital platforms.
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Marstone

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