Innovations in wealth building technology have been on the rise over the past few years, and venture capitalists have taken note of it. Across the U.S., companies developing digital solutions to help users invest and save money received more than $20 billion in venture funding during 2021. Having developed such a solution of its own, Atlanta-based Gridline is joining the trend with a $9 million injection of capital.
The company aims to give accredited individual investors access to professionally-managed funds for alternative assets, enabling them to diversify their portfolio for a lower cost than under traditional investment circumstances. Gridline pools individual investor commitments into a single vehicle that gets directly invested into the underlying funds, Logan Henderson, Gridline’s CEO and founder, told Built In via email.
Its goal is to open up the alternative investments industry to the individual investor, rather than institutional investors and insiders who’ve historically had access to it, according to its website. Gridline works to do this by handling back-office tasks like treasury management, performance reporting and tax requirements, freeing up investors to make regulation-compliant investments within minutes.
“Sophisticated institutional investors have [more than] 55 percent of their assets allocated to alternatives compared to [about] 6 percent for the average investor, largely due to their return potential, diversifying power and lower volatility,” Henderson said. “Currently, the level of uncertainty related to inflation, rising interest rates, and geopolitical risk are putting markets under significant pressure. … Market downturns that result in mark-to-market losses present an opportunity to buy cheaper assets that profit when the market rebounds.”
The company wants to help users grow and preserve their investment portfolios even amid these kinds of volatile situations, a goal its latest injection of capital will help it achieve.
The wealthtech platform’s latest funding comes from a collection of investors including firms like Ardent Venture Partners and Tech Square Ventures, as well as individual executives like Kyle Porter, founder and CEO of SalesLoft; Garrett Langley, founder and CEO of Flock Safety; and Sacha Labourey, co-founder of CloudBees. The round will largely go toward building out its internal team.
Gridline is currently hiring new talent to double the size of its 16-person headcount over the next 12 months. It’s hiring analysts to expand its investments team, as well as building out its engineering, sales and marketing departments.
“We will also focus on expanding the product offerings to cover additional asset classes, build novel liquidity solutions such as collateralized asset loans, and launch platform features such as model portfolios and diversification suggestions,” Henderson said. “Gridline’s vision is to be the go-to platform for discovering, deploying and managing investments across all alternative asset classes.”
