Eisenman positions Arch as a platform that can sit between the myriad software programs utilized by both investment firms and their backers, from Carta and Juniper Square to Addepar and Black Diamond. Arch is a more customer-facing dashboard that he pitches as a “Switzerland” bridging the various worlds of the modern investor.
Matt Streisfeld, the lead investor from the $5.3 billion venture firm Oak HC/FT, said that Arch appealed to them because of its consumerized feel, especially as private markets swell and attract waves of new investors. He said that the platform is also adding new products to help simplify the relationship between investment firms and their backers, such as facilitating capital calls, or requests to contribute a portion of the capital that LPs have already committed, as well as distributions from successful investments. In the future, Arch could even help support secondary market transactions, where investors trade their private holdings, helping really transform the company into a Schwab-like product.
Arch is quickly growing, with 160 employees and around $260 billion in assets managed by its customers on the platform. But for a company dedicated to private markets, the real billion-dollar question is whether it will pursue its own public offering or be acquired. Streisfeld said that 85% of exits in financial services are sales to strategics, or an acquisition by a similar, typically larger company, pointing to BlackRock’s 2024 purchase of the alternative asset data provider Preqin for $3.2 billion as an example. Streisfeld said that Arch has the scale to eventually IPO. “But I do think in any of those types of markets, being a public company doesn’t always have its advantages,” he added.
