M and A

Acquisition-Hungry FNZ Attracts $1.4 Billion In Fresh Funding

Tom Burroughes Group Editor 11 February 2022

Acquisition-Hungry FNZ Attracts $1.4 Billion In Fresh Funding

The organization recently inked a deal with Appway, a firm specializing in areas such as onboarding private banking and wealth management clients. FNZ has focused on the wealth sector, working with hundreds of organizations worldwide.

FNZ, the wealth management technology provider which last year agreed to buy Switzerland-based onboarding tech specialist Appway, has secured $1.4 billion in new equity funding from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Motive Partners.

The fundraising values FNZ, founded in 2003 in New Zealand, at more than $20 billion, it said in a statement today.

The fresh capital will help FNZ to accelerate its growth through increased research and development, and expand in its recently-entered markets, in particular North America. CPP Investments is investing a total of $1.1 billion into the firm.  

In the last five years, FNZ has grown assets under administration more than seven-fold from $212 billion to more than $1.5 trillion. The company now partners with more than 650 large financial institutions and more than 8,000 wealth management firms in 21 countries including abrdn, Allianz, Aviva, Barclays, BNP Paribas Cardif, BNZ, Colonial First State, Generali, Jarden, Lloyds, Momentum, NAB, Quilter, Swedbank, UOB and Vanguard. 

“This growth is set to continue as FNZ accelerates its market penetration, targeting a greater share of the [approximate] $100 trillion global wealth market,” it said in a statement. 

CPP Investments and Motive Partners represent the fifth and sixth external shareholders in FNZ. In 2018, CDPQ and Generation Investment Management acquired a majority stake in the company, in a partnership built around long-term and sustainable investment. They were joined in 2021 by Temasek, enhancing FNZ's reach into Asian markets. 

Lazard & Co Limited acted as exclusive financial advisor, and Allen & Overy LLP acted as lead legal advisor, to FNZ in relation to the equity capital raise.

"Today's announcement represents a resounding endorsement of FNZ's track record and future strategy. The company has successfully demonstrated exponential growth in the scale and depth of customer relationships and geographic expansion with platform revenues more than quadrupling in the past three years to over $1 billion per annum, whilst also growing profitably and sustainably,” Adrian Durham, founder and group CEO of FNZ, said.  

Rob Heyvaert, founder and managing partner at Motive Partners, will join the FNZ Group board as a non-executive director on completion of the fundraising.

Register for WealthBriefingAsia today

Gain access to regular and exclusive research on the global wealth management sector along with the opportunity to attend industry events such as exclusive invites to Breakfast Briefings and Summits in the major wealth management centres and industry leading awards programmes