Revolut Ltd. said it will make private market funds from several leading alternative asset managers available to its European clientele, with investment minimums beginning at €1 ($1.14), according to reporting published Monday. The app-based financial services firm will allow customers in a range of countries - including France and Spain - to subscribe to funds run by Apollo Global Management Inc., Ares Management Corp., Hamilton Lane Inc. and Partners Group Holding AG.
The arrangement represents another instance of private capital firms seeking broader sources of capital by courting individual investors. Revolut, a London-based fintech that has exceeded 75 million users globally, is providing distribution access to funds that historically have been sold primarily to institutional or high-net-worth investors.
Executives at Revolut confirmed the mechanics of the offering to reporters. Rolandas Juteika, the company's head of wealth and trading in the European Economic Area, verified the €1 minimum investment threshold in an interview cited in the reporting.
Details on fees and commercial arrangements were outlined by a Revolut spokesperson. Clients will not face additional platform or transaction charges from Revolut on top of the fees already levied by the individual funds. Revolut also said fund managers are not paying placement fees to be listed on the platform. Instead, the fintech will receive retrocessions associated with the applicable share class of each fund, and those payments are identical for all distributors of a given share class, the spokesperson added.
The launch comes against a backdrop of recent strained liquidity in some private markets vehicles. The reporting noted that many private funds have seen waves of withdrawal requests in recent months, and that some of those requests have come from wealthy retail investors who had contributed to growth in the sector. Apollo and Ares were identified among the firms that have restricted redemptions.
Revolut's initiative follows earlier discussions between the fintech and alternative managers; the companies had been in talks about such an offering before the current rollout, the reporting indicated.
How the product will perform in practice, how many customers will participate and how fund-level dynamics will evolve remain to be seen. The announcement does not change the stated fee schedules of the underlying funds, and investors accessing these products through Revolut will continue to be subject to the funds' own terms and conditions.