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New investors , , and put money in the round in addition to existing backers , , and .

As part of the financing, BlackRock has taken a ”significant minority stake” in iCapital Network, which will operate as an independent company, the company said. I was curious as to what it meant by that the company said it “has a broad based of strategic investors, rather than being backed by any one large investor.”

New York-based iCapital Network – which has developed a distribution, administration and workflow platform for high net-worth access to alternative assets – had previously only raised a total of $36.9 million in known funding since its 2013 inception, bringing its total raised to $183 million, according to Crunchbase . Previous backers include , , and , among others.

Major growth

The company has seen impressive growth, particularly in the last year. In 2019, iCapital said it upped the assets it services from $8 billion to $46.6 billion across more than 470 funds, 100,000 underlying accounts and 55 white label partnerships. Specifically, iCapital said it saw $12.1 billion in organic platform growth as well as growth as a result of its strategic partnership acquisitions. In the first half of 2019, iCapital acquired the alternative investment feeder fund platforms of both and .��The company also expanded its senior leadership during the year, and added nearly 100 employees to bring its total headcount to 218.

In a statement, iCapital Network CEO said the raise is indicative of the fact that asset and wealth management industries “have embraced the need for an independent, automated, transparent approach to alternatives.”

iCapital says it was founded with the goal of making high-quality alternative investments accessible to wealth advisors and their high-net-worth investors, and enabling fund managers to reach new sources of capital.��The firm’s flagship platform offers advisors and their high net worth clients access to a curated menu of private equity, hedge funds, and private credit investing opportunities “at lower minimums with a full suite of due diligence in a secure digital environment.”

Additionally, asset managers and banks leverage iCapital’s tech-enabled services to streamline and scale their private investments operational infrastructure by using white labels versions of its technology.

In other words, the platform is designed to streamline access, ease operational burdens and improve the user experience. Its target users range from advisors seeking to incorporate alternative investments in their clients’ portfolios to asset managers looking to scale their fundraising efforts to wealth management firms seeking a technology platform to enhance or replace existing systems.

The company says it currently has nearly 4,000 registered network members that include financial advisors, family offices and individual investors. iCapital also has 57 white label partnerships.

Expansion ahead

iCapital says it plans to use the new capital to enhance its platform technology and expand functionality. It also plans to diversify its investment offerings and global investors base. Additionally, the company intends to continue expanding globally across North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East by increasing its partnerships with wealth management players.

In addition to the investment, Ping An and other investors have said they either plan to partner with or have already partnered with iCapital to leverage its proprietary technology. The goal is to use the technology to help manage the end-to-end operations of their private market activities.

, chairman and CEO of Ping An, said his firm is excited to partner with the iCapital team on its next stage of growth, as it sees “enormous opportunities to open up access to alternatives in Asia and beyond.”

BlackRock COO said that as financial advisers explore the role alternatives can play in diversified portfolios, “iCapital’s leading open-architecture platform provides technology to streamline, automate and facilitate investments in private markets.”

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The autonomous driving company, previously incubated as an “other bets” project under the umbrella of , says it has raised a staggering $2.25 billion in financing from investors including , the , and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund . Other firms including , global automotive supplier , pre-owned vehicle listing service , and its corporate parent Alphabet also participated in Waymo’s round.

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“We’ve always approached our mission as a team sport, collaborating with our [original equipment manufacturer] and supplier partners, our operations partners and the communities we serve to build and deploy the world’s most experienced driver,” said , CEO of Waymo. “Today, we’re expanding that team, adding financial investors and important strategic partners who bring decades of experience investing in and supporting successful technology companies building transformative products. With this injection of capital and business acumen, alongside Alphabet, we’ll deepen our investment in our people, our technology and our operations, all in support of the deployment of the Waymo Driver around the world.”

Waymo did not say, precisely, what it will do with its newfound cash, but it did share a number of development and business milestones. The company says its autonomous Waymo Driver platform has driven “more than 20 million miles on public roads across over 25 cities, and over 10 billion miles in simulation.” Waymo added that the company has already shipped its first L4 autonomous vehicles (which include electric vehicles and Class 8 trucks, according to the company) with the company’s latest hardware and beefed onboard sensors and compute hardware.

The company also provided updates about Waymo One, its on-demand autonomous car service which currently operates in Arizona. The service has already provided thousands of trips to locals “in a high-speed mixed usage market area larger than San Francisco.”

The deal comes 10 months after rival self-driving car outfit at an approximate $18 billion post-money valuation. The , , and automakers and participated in the raise.

TechCrunch in March 2019 that the company was seeking outside investment at a lofty valuation. In September, to $105 billion from $175 billion, based on its discounted cashflows.

No information about the company’s valuation or other terms of today’s financing have been disclosed at this time.

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