The ascent of firms such as iCapital speaks to the rise in popularity of alternative investments and how technology is being used to make access faster, more efficient and comprehensive.

Franklin Templeton has partnered with iCapital, the fintech platform for alternative investment areas such as private equity and infrastructure.

Under the arrangement, the US investment house will use iCapital’s technology and service solutions for financial advisors and their clients who want to use Franklin Templeton’s alternative investments offerings. Offerings include Franklin BSP Capital Corporation (FBCC) and Clarion Partners Real Estate Income Fund (CPREIF).

The move comes as New York-based iCapital has been expanding internationally. It has partnered with a raft of banks and investment shops, taking advantage of rising interest in alternative assets. The asset class – covering a wide field – has appealed to investors seeking yields from relatively illiquid areas when bonds’ and listed equities’ yields have been slammed over the past decade by ultra-low interest rates.

In its statement this week, Franklin Templeton said it has “significantly” grown its alternative asset strategies – it is now managing more than $200 billion in total assets under management. The firm handles this work through specialist investment managers: private real estate through Clarion Partners; alternative credit through Benefit Street Partners; hedge fund strategies via K2 Advisors; and secondary private equity and co-investments via Lexington Partners.

FBCC is a non-listed business development company that primarily invests in first and second lien senior secured loans to predominantly private US middle-market companies, those with annual revenues of up to $1 billion. CPREIF seeks to offer individual investors direct access to a portfolio of privately-held, income-producing, institutional-quality commercial real estate properties through an innovative investment fund driven by the deep real estate expertise of Clarion Partners. 

In late May, it agreed to buy SIMON Markets, a business operating in the structured investments and annuity products field.

In March this year, iCapital agreed to buy Sifel Financial’s feeder fund platform for the hedge fund space. It has inked masses of partnerships and arrangements with banks such as UBS, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of Singapore and asset management big-hitters such as BlackRock, Blackstone, KKR and Carlyle Group. In December last year, iCapital announced that it had closed on a $50 million funding round led by WestCap. Apollo and Temasek also invested in the round, which valued the company at more than $6 billion. Other recent developments include partnerships with Allfunds, the funds network, and a move to launch a consortium to develop a distributed ledger-based solution for the alternative investment ecosystem.

The international development and expansion of the iCapital business is accelerating, Marco Bizzozero, head of international business at the firm, told this news service recently.