![]() "We were very excited to partner with SALT, who had already been to Singapore previously and ran a couple of really good events there." There were 800 attendees and more than 1,000 one-on-one meetings. ![]() This proved to be especially successful because the culture in Asia is very focused on face-to-face meetings, says Biscardi. Last month, iConnections ran an inaugural event in Singapore in collaboration with SALT. The app and technology facilitate the initial meetings, as well as the ongoing connectivity, reducing the need to travel around the world at least for the initial meetings. There is also the issue of carbon footprint programs among GPs and LPs. Coming out of COVID, there's no question that the entire industry is definitely more comfortable with this technology as their first step." "Generally speaking, you're not going to allocate tens of millions of dollars without a face-to-face meeting and going through the typical due diligence process. "Of course, everyone still prefers to meet face-to-face, especially in this industry," he says. But now, the trend is swinging back to virtual meetings, at least for the initial ones. People met in person and went to events a lot more after the pandemic subsided as a reaction to being locked indoors for so long. Post-pandemic, the platform continues to help coordinate virtual and physical meetings in and out of events. Now, a lot of people prefer the introductory meeting to be virtual, something platforms such as iConnections can facilitate. The pandemic shifted the focus of initial meetings. The technology also allows people to find each other at events and host break-out sessions. This is different now, as physical meetings can be replaced by virtual meetings after the event has ended. We have ongoing interactions between allocators and managers on our platform and app throughout the year, through our Coffee Chats and Pitch Sessions."īefore the current platform model came to be, people at events who cancelled a physical meeting would lose that meeting. "As a result, our ability to build that community and keep it connected is vastly better than it was ten years ago. "We're providing much more of a connection among a broad community of investors, alternative fund managers and service providers," he says. The iConnections cap intro platform has become so practical that members run it on their smartphones. It is a sharp contrast to 2013 when everything was done physically. Platforms like iConnections are now enabling managers and allocators to message, exchange documentation, and meet virtually on the platform. ![]() "Whereas, when I started in the cap intro market in 2013, it was 100% hedge funds," he adds.Īnother notable change in capital raising over the last decade is the way people meet. Since Biscardi founded iConnections in April 2020, the firm has partnered with many private market funds, to the extent that approximately 40% of the Global Alts conference is geared towards them. Private market funds typically invest in private equity, venture, private debt, infrastructure and real estate. The service provider community within private markets just isn't set up in the same way. "But on the private market side, there isn't a natural sponsor of cap intro type events because there is no prime broker involved. "Cap intro has been broadly used by hedge funds for years, mostly driven by all the big prime brokers," says Biscardi. He built the world's largest alternative investments capital introduction conference, Global Alts, which takes place annually in Miami Beach, and his iConnections platform is used by key industry participants such as AIMA, 100 Women in Finance, SALT, as well as CNBC's 'Delivering Alpha' and Forbes' Iconoclast events. Ron Biscardi has over 25 years of experience in the alternative investment industry. He also observes interesting trends in the way allocators and managers meet, and that there is a right way to use a networking platform, and a wrong way. In his view, the biggest changes in the capital introduction industry are the adoption of technology and growing involvement among private market participants. Ron Biscardi, the CEO and co-founder of iConnections, has been building capital-raising platforms for hedge funds for nearly 10 years. Horizons: Family Office & Investor MagazineĪlternative Market Briefing The way we meet: hedge fund style cap intro expands to private equity.Opalesque Roundtable Series - Archive (all).
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