The latest news about technology products and services relevant for wealth managers around the world.

Pueblo
Ole Rollag, a serial entrepreneur in the asset management industry, has launched a venture called Pueblo which aims to simplify how investors and managers interact, slashing the daily volume of unsolicited emails from fund managers.

Pueblo is a free-to-use diary scheduling tool that allows professional investors to see which managers are visiting their area to request meetings, information or other follow-up activity. The tool is designed to eliminate the need for professional investors and capital allocators to trawl through the emails and inbound calls they receive every day from unknown and un-curated managers.
 
For example, Pueblo can also be used by investors to make the most of their travels by identifying and requesting introductions to new and previously unknown managers in the cities they plan to visit.

Managers can upload information onto the Pueblo platform - it has to meet certain criteria to be accepted - and it is then curated for the individual needs set by the investor, via pre-determined factors such as asset class focus, fund size, structure and other hard criteria. Subsequently, Pueblo presents only the relevant managers.
 
The service is available to the entire asset management industry, across long-only, hedge funds, private equity, private debt, real estate and infrastructure funds. Organisations which are expected to use the service include private banks, wealth management firms and advisors, single and multi-family offices, public and private pension funds, endowments, insurance companies, foundations and trusts.

Pueblo’s founder, Rollag, who has worked in the asset management industry for the past 20 years, founded Murano, an investor connections and research firm. 

“This was such a simple and effective idea that we thought, why not? This is a relationship business and meeting with managers is an essential part of the discovery process. If we could find a way to consolidate this daunting process for both parties, it would improve industry efficiency,” Rollag said.

For investors, it takes about 10 minutes to register for Pueblo. For fund managers, the sign-up process is a longer, averaging 20 minutes. The registration and use of the site is secure and restricted to professional allocators and credible fund managers. Before gaining access to the service, each user is vetted by a member of the Pueblo team. 

Pueblo will be free to use over successive quarterly periods while the business is scaled up. It will then become a subscription service paid for by the manager. 

Explaining the name, Rollag said that Pueblo means "village" in Spanish. It is also the name of a Native American tribe which lives in a series of complex adobe villages in the Southwestern United States. The Puebloans are a very tight-knit, traditional community focused around the family and clans.