Adminis - Comprehensive Analysis Report

Summary

Adminis, established in 2012 in Wellington, New Zealand, is a technology-driven company in the financial services sector. Spun out of Crema Capital, a boutique Wealth Management service, Adminis is focused on providing a cloud-based platform for investment management, reporting, and administration. The company's core mission is to simplify financial services and significantly enhance the quality, efficiency, and sophistication of the New Zealand financial services industry. Adminis empowers wealth managers, fund managers, self-directed investment platforms, and high-net-worth individuals with a consolidated view of assets across various portfolios and currencies, enabling informed decision-making and driving client growth.

1. Strategic Focus & Objectives

Core Objectives

Adminis aims to lead a step-change in the quality, efficiency, and sophistication of financial services in New Zealand. Its main business objectives include:

Simplifying Financial Services: Streamlining complex financial operations through technology.

Enhancing Efficiency and Sophistication: Driving innovation and automation in investment accounting, administration, custody, registry, and portfolio and performance reporting.

Facilitating Informed Decision-Making: Providing a consolidated, multi-currency, and multi-asset view of wealth to clients.

Supporting Client Growth: Focusing on innovation and automation to help clients achieve their financial goals.

Specialization Areas

Adminis specializes in delivering technology-driven wealth solutions. Key areas of expertise include:

Investment Accounting and Administration: Offering comprehensive services in these domains.

Custody and Registry Services: Providing secure and efficient management of client assets.

Portfolio and Performance Reporting: Delivering detailed analytics and reporting for various asset classes.

Fund Hosting Services: Providing services for PIE funds in New Zealand, which offers speed to market, low cost of entry, and outsourced regulatory burden for clients.

Proprietary Cloud-Based Platform: A unique value proposition built on double-entry accountancy principles, ensuring accurate and reliable data.

Target Markets

Adminis serves a diverse client base within the financial services industry:

Wealth Managers: Providing tools and solutions for managing client portfolios.

Fund Managers: Supporting their investment and administrative needs.

Self-Directed Investment Platforms: Offering technology for their users.

Wealthy Private Individuals and Their Families (High Net Worth): Enabling them to organize wealth and make informed personal financial decisions.

Corporate Trustees: Providing investment administration services.

2. Financial Overview

Funding History

Adminis is a privately held, seed-stage company.

Total Funds Raised: An undisclosed amount.

Funding Rounds: The company has raised funding over one Seed round.

Key Investors:

Lead Investor: Movac.

Institutional Investors: Movac, Somers, and StratWorks (total of 3).

Angel Investors: Ian Samuel Knowles and 10 others (total of 11).

Fund Utilization & Impact: While specific utilization details are undisclosed, the funding supports the company's growth as it generates revenue. The investments enable Adminis to extend its technology-driven wealth management offerings and expand its market reach.

3. Product Pipeline

Key Products/Services

Adminis's core offering is its cloud-based platform for investment management, reporting, and administration.

Product Name: Adminis Cloud-Based Platform.

Description: A comprehensive platform designed for investment managers and investors to access detailed information about portfolios, investments, accounting, and reporting. It supports multi-currency and multi-asset classes.

Development Stage: Actively operational and continuously enhanced, especially through partnerships like with Calastone to automate trading processes.

Target Market/Condition: Financial institutions, wealth managers, fund managers, and high-net-worth individuals requiring robust and efficient investment administration and reporting.

Key Features and Benefits:

Multi-currency and Multi-asset Support: Handles foreign exchange, equities, fixed income, options, futures, commodities, and funds.

Consolidated View of Assets: Provides a single, comprehensive picture of all assets across multiple portfolios.

Portfolio Reporting and Analysis: Offers easy-to-use analytics and reporting tools.

Investment Accounting and Administration: Proprietary technology built on double-entry accountancy principles for accurate data.

Portfolio Management Tools: Facilitates quick and easy rebalancing using model portfolios.

Order Management Tool: Enables direct market placement of trades.

Regulatory Compliance Support: Includes outsourced regulatory burden for PIE funds in New Zealand.

4. Technology & Innovation

Technology Stack

Adminis leverages a proprietary, cloud-based platform at its core.

Core Platforms and Technologies: The primary platform is cloud-based, ensuring high availability and mirrored production data centers for reliability and security.

Proprietary Developments: Its technology is proprietary and built on robust double-entry accountancy principles, generating accurate and reliable data. This proprietary nature allows for rapid adaptation to market trends.

Scientific Methodologies: Employs industry best standards for compliance, reliability, performance, security, and scalability, ensuring data safety and security.

Technical Capabilities:

Multi-currency and Multi-asset Handling: Capable of processing a wide range of financial instruments.

Automated Transaction Processing: Demonstrated through its partnership with Calastone, achieving significantly higher Straight Through Processing (STP) rates.

Analytical and Reporting Engine: Provides comprehensive portfolio reporting and analysis.

5. Leadership & Management

Executive Team

Adminis is led by a team with extensive experience in financial services:

Sam Knowles: Chairman.

Susan Hansen: Director.

Adrian Januszkiewicz: Director.

Martin Kay: Founder & Executive Director. Recognized as the CEO of Adminis. He is also the founder of one other company and serves on the board of one company.

Dugald Morrison: Director.

Matan Gan-El: Chief Executive Officer.

Patricia Fletcher: Head of Compliance.

Maire Boyce: People Experience Manager.

David Campbell: Head of Operations & Custody. He has highlighted the company's focus on increasing operational efficiency and the benefits of partnerships for straight-through processing.

Vanessa Balshaw: Chief Financial Officer.

Eric Mattlin: Head of Product.

David Mansfield: Head of Business Development.

Ben Amor: Chief Technology Officer.

Nick Willis: Chief Analytics Officer.

6. Talent and Growth Indicators

Hiring Trends and Workforce

Company Size: Adminis employs 60 total employees.

Growth Trajectory Indicators: The company is actively focused on innovation and automation to drive growth in the financial services sector.

Employee Sentiment and Culture Insights: Adminis is backed by a high-performing team focused on simplifying financial services.

Expansion Metrics: Adminis has grown from a niche operator to a substantial local investment back-office provider, now reporting over $20 billion of assets under administration on behalf of more than 60 clients and 81,000+ underlying investors.

7. Social Media Presence and Engagement

Digital Footprint

Social Media Activity: Adminis maintains a presence on LinkedIn, which is highlighted on its website.

Brand Messaging and Positioning: The company utilizes social media to communicate its focus on technology-driven wealth solutions and to engage with the financial services community.

8. Competitive Analysis

Major Competitors

Adminis operates in a competitive landscape within financial software and investment administration. Key competitors include:

ASCENT: A provider of fund administration, corporate, and fintech solutions. It is an active competitor in financial software and investment administration.

Multrees Investor Services: Offers investor and administrative services. It is an active competitor in financial software and investment administration.

Next Gate Tech: A Luxembourg-based data-driven FundTech company providing SaaS solutions for the asset management industry. They focus on enhancing fund industry technology using machine learning, data analytics, and smart automation to streamline middle and back-office processes.

9. Market Analysis

Market Overview

Adminis operates within the financial software and services industry, with a particular focus on New Zealand.

Growth Potential: The company aims to improve the quality, efficiency, and sophistication of the local financial services sector. It has also secured a Managed Investment Scheme (MIS) licence, enabling it to offer its funds to the larger retail investor market, expanding its distribution appeal.

Key Market Trends: The financial services market is moving towards automation to address challenges like manual fund trades. Adminis is at the forefront of this trend, actively seeking to overcome these inefficiencies through technology.

Market Challenges and Opportunities: Manual fund trading processes remain a challenge in Australasia, which Adminis tackles with its automation and straight-through processing capabilities. The acquisition of an MIS licence represents a significant opportunity to access a broader retail investor market, alongside its established wholesale fund-hosting services.

10. Strategic Partnerships

Strategic Partnerships

Adminis has established a significant collaboration to enhance its operational capabilities.

Partner Organization: Calastone, a global transaction network.

Nature of Partnership: Adminis partnered with Calastone to automate its fund trading processes, transitioning from manual methods like email and fax to electronic order routing.

Strategic Benefits:

Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Reduced error rates to nil for trades sent via Calastone and generated an 80% time saving.

Increased Scalability and Resilience: Helped handle increased transaction volumes, especially after the InvestNow platform acquired Rabobank's fund clients, substantially increasing Adminis's workload.

Higher Straight Through Processing (STP) Rates: Achieved 65% STP across its business, with an anticipated rise to 85% as more administrators join the network.

Future Automation: Current efforts are focused on automating asset transfers, which are typically manual and risk-prone.

Collaborative Achievements: The partnership has allowed Adminis to provide faster and more efficient service to its clients, making its service offering more scalable.

11. Operational Insights

Adminis differentiates itself through its proprietary, cloud-based platform, offering comprehensive, multi-currency, and multi-asset handling for investment accounting, administration, and reporting.

Current Market Position: A substantial local investment back-office provider in New Zealand, Adminis reports over $20 billion in assets under administration for more than 60 clients and 81,000+ underlying investors.

Competitive Advantages:

Proprietary Technology: Its owned technology allows for rapid adaptation to market trends and ensures compliance, security, and scalability.

Comprehensive Platform: Offers a consolidated view of assets across multiple portfolios and currencies, simplifying complex financial management.

Fund Hosting Services: Provides outsourced regulatory burden, speed to market, and low cost of entry for clients leveraging its PIE fund hosting.

Automation: Strategic partnerships, such as with Calastone, drive high levels of automation and efficiency, reducing processing errors and time.

Operational Strengths: Strong focus on compliance, security, and scalability with high availability cloud-based infrastructure and mirrored production data centers.

Areas for Improvement: Continuous efforts are directed towards automating remaining manual processes, such as asset transfers, to further enhance efficiency and reduce risk.

12. Future Outlook

Strategic Roadmap

Adminis is strategically positioned for continued expansion and leadership in the financial services technology sector.

Planned Initiatives: Expanding its retail fund-hosting capabilities after securing a Managed Investment Scheme (MIS) licence, allowing it to reach a larger investor market. The company is also working to automate asset transfers with Calastone, which are currently manual.

Growth Strategies: Continued enhancement of its technology-driven wealth solutions and fund hosting services through innovation and automation. This includes increasing Straight Through Processing (STP) rates to 85% in collaboration with Calastone.

Expansion Opportunities: Potentially broadening its service offerings and client base within and beyond New Zealand by capitalizing on its scalable platform and readiness to integrate with existing financial infrastructures.

Future Challenges and Mitigation Strategies: The company aims to mitigate operational challenges often associated with manual processes by driving further automation and refining its proprietary platform capabilities. Its adaptability to market trends through its owned technology provides a strong foundation for addressing evolving industry demands.