iCapital Collaborates with HSBC’s VC Climate Tech Strategy for Wholesale Clients
iCapital, the fintech platform operating in the alternative asset class space, is collaborating with HSBC Asset Management to widen access to its climate technology venture capital strategy for wholesale clients.
iCapital will provide a customized “white label” solution to deliver HSBC’s strategy across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The strategy provides clients with opportunities to invest in early-stage tech startups seeking to accelerate the decarbonization and depollution of industries.
The strategy will focus on companies active in four segments – power transformation, transport electrification, supply chain sustainability and climate risk management – and invests across North America, Europe and Israel.
The pact is an example of how New York-headquartered iCapital has expanded, using its tech platform to widen access to alternative asset classes and creating a distribution route once dominated by banks.
The collaboration is part of HSBC Asset Management’s ambition to grow its alternatives capabilities, which now fall under a single business unit, HSBC Alternatives, with a team of 170 professionals.
According to Joanna Munro, CEO of HSBC Alternatives, around $6.5 trillion must be invested in technology to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
“There is significant unmet demand from wealth managers and their clients for private markets as value creation is increasingly taking place outside public markets while companies are still private,” said Marco Bizzozero, head of international at iCapital.
In August 2022, iCapital agreed to buy UBS’s alternative investment manager platform in the US. In June of that year, Bank of America made a strategic investment in iCapital, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management expanded its US partnership in July 2022.
Launched in 2013, iCapital manages $153 billion in assets, of which $30 billion are from international investors across more than 1,230 funds. It is backed by several investment firms, including Blackstone and Goldman Sachs, and has made more than a dozen acquisitions.
