Hello Caruso

Today is an exciting day for me as I get to share more about Caruso, a company I recently co-founded. Caruso’s technology was developed inside Jasper over the last three years and is now being spun out into its own independent SAAS business.

What is Caruso?

Caruso is a modern cloud software for fund managers. Caruso allows fund managers to manage all their fund operations effortlessly in one place - onboard investors, manage compliance, raise capital, issue distributions, and everything in between.

Why this space and why now?

The fund management industry has emerged from the global pandemic in a position of strength, with assets under management growing by 12% in 2021 to US$112 trillion.

This growth is expected to continue, underpinned by some long-term trends:

• Economic growth and globalisation have led to more wealth creation, which has led to greater demand for asset management services.
• Individual investors are becoming more sophisticated and demanding while becoming increasingly more aware of the importance of diversification and professional asset allocation.
• People are living longer, and retirements are becoming more common, meaning that there is a greater need for financial planning and management.

Post-pandemic asset managers are entering a new era that will require them to fundamentally change how they do business.

Despite this growth, post-pandemic asset managers are entering a new era that will require them to fundamentally change how they do business:

• On the operations side, remote models have emerged as permanent fixtures, costs have risen significantly, and there is strong fee compression across the board. To remain competitive, firms must leverage software to improve efficiency, reduce risk and lower costs.?
• On the revenue side, fund managers will need to meet growing investor demand in regard to the digital investor experience and leverage technology to tap into new, more fragmented capital pools (retail) and provide access to new opportunities (private markets and alternatives).

The adoption of technology will be a critical differentiator between the winners and losers in this new era.

The adoption of technology will be a critical differentiator between the winners and losers in this new era.?Yet, the fund management industry is awash with fragmented solutions that are expensive, slow, and poorly designed. At Caruso, we are changing that.

Caruso’s mission

We believe that fund managers should focus on building lasting relationships, managing assets and delivering strong returns —and that software should manage the rest.

At Caruso, we are on a mission to revolutionise how investments are accessed, experienced and managed. We believe that fund managers should focus on building lasting relationships, managing assets and delivering strong returns —and that software should manage the rest.

So we have bought together a team with deep experience across fund management, compliance, finance, design and technology. To create software for fund managers that's easy to use, beautiful, powerful, extensible and secure.

By providing powerful, modern and automated tools to fund managers across asset classes, we're not only helping those fund managers grow their businesses but also creating a brighter financial future for all investors.

To learn more about Caruso, visit our website here

How does this impact Jasper?

For Jasper’s investors and partners, nothing will change. Jasper will continue as a property funds management business. The same property team will continue managing Jasper’s assets and funds, surfacing new strategies and growing the business into new asset classes and territories. Jasper will continue to use the same industry-leading software (Caruso) to power its business; the only difference is Jasper will now license the technology on arms-length terms instead of owning it.

With us spinning out the technology from Jasper, with my background and experience, it makes sense for me to follow the technology over to Caruso. I will lead the Caruso business alongside Ollie Shaw in Co-CEO roles. My Co-Founder, Mark Campbell , will continue to lead the Jasper business, now as sole CEO.?

Jasper has exceeded all expectations since inception, quickly scaling revenue, growing assets under management, and delivering early profitability. Jasper now has over $340m of assets under management and partners with some of the biggest global names in real estate, including Blackstone.

Mark C has done an exceptional job driving Jasper over the last three years and is responsible alongside his team for a significant amount of its success. I have a tremendous amount of confidence in Jasper’s future, and I’m excited to see the business continue to execute and ascend higher.