The Carlyle Group has acquired a majority stake in fund management platform Calastone. The UK company’s solution is fully digitized using distributed ledger technology. It made the shift in May 2019 when it launched its Distributed Market Infrastructure (DMI) to automate its solution.
Calastone has 2,300 clients, processes £200 billion ($260 billion) of investment value monthly and serves the mutual fund and money markets fund sectors. In the latter case, it counts JP Morgan Asset Management as a client.
Its network provides asset managers with automated order routing, settlement, dividend and transfer services.
“Our business has grown from strength to strength and has created the Distributed Market Infrastructure (DMI), a hugely innovative and market leading DLT based platform to drive yet more efficiency,” said Calastone CEO Julien Hammerson. At launch, the platform used Enterprise Ethereum with Proof of Authority, but the company expressed a desire to become ledger agnostic.
Carlyle acquired the stake from existing shareholders, including Octopus Ventures and Accel.
Meanwhile, Carlyle Managing Director Fernando Chueca said that Carlyle looks “forward to leveraging our global platform, network of relationships, and deep expertise in Financial Services and Technology to support Calastone in its next phase of growth.”
There’s quite a bit of activity at the intersection of the fund sector and blockchain. Allfunds with more than $1.2 trillion in assets under administration has launched a blockchain subsidiary and ran trials with Iberpay, which operations Spain’s national payment system. It also uses Ethereum.
Other players in the space include FundsDLT from the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, FNZ and IZNES developed by SETL.
