Bermudian-based high-tech asset management firm Alpha Innovations Ltd has launched a platform aimed at helping small and independent portfolio managers attract investors, and for investors to access portfolio managers who produce stronger returns.

The new platform, AI Global Investors, is a New York-based investment adviser that provides “turnkey infrastructure support to a growing number of best-in-class investment management teams”.

Lawrence Newhook, chief executive officer of Hamilton-headquartered Alpha Innovations, said: “More than 4,000 hedge funds have closed their doors in the last five years, setting loose a vast torrent of talent into the marketplace. They’re going out on their own and they need infrastructure. The new AI Global Investors platform provides that, speeding them to market.”

He added: “There’s a big problem in the industry. The large shops have the infrastructure required to win mandates from institutional investors, but most haven’t been putting up the returns. The smaller shops can put up the numbers, but don’t have the infrastructure. We solve that problem.

“Smaller and independent PMs [portfolio managers] get the support they need to be attractive to investors and investors get access to PMs who produce stronger returns.”

Mr Newhook said the talent flight had been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the pandemic had also created dislocations in the market which top portfolio managers want to capitalise on.

The company said its platform satisfied stringent infrastructure requirements of institutional investors by providing an institutional-quality solution for portfolio managers who want to focus on generating returns without the distractions of running an investment management business.

It said the platform allows portfolio managers to manage money within weeks rather than the months they would face if they had to build their own infrastructure, and at a lower cost due to economies of scale.

Mark Antonio Awada, Alpha Innovations’ chief of risk and investment sciences, said research showed that smaller and emerging managers outperform their larger peers, but most institutional investors can’t invest in them because of the risks associated with managers lacking robust infrastructure.

Dr Awada said: “Alpha Innovations was established to mitigate this risk, solving this problem and making high-quality portfolio managers investible for institutions.”

Mr Newhook added: “This gets rid of a big hurdle. The AIGI platform enables portfolio managers to get up and trading with managed accounts, stand-alone funds, or master-feeder structures quickly and inexpensively, complete with the support of top-shelf service providers typically out of the reach of all but the largest managers.”

Alpha Innovations was launched in 2018, and creates bespoke multi-strategy funds and managed accounts for investors. In addition to serving as sub-adviser to Alpha Innovations, AI Global Investors will market strategies via managed accounts or funds on the platform to investors worldwide.