Barings, Allianz Life Ventures, and Broadridge Financial Solutions are betting on a distribution ally to fundsters. The New York City-area firm is approaching its third anniversary and now supports nearly 60 asset managers with nearly $2 trillion in combined assets.

Brian Michael Moran FLX Networks CEO, Founder

Earlier this month, Brian Moran (the CEO of FLX Networks who founded the TPM in December 2019), Tom Bavin (head of corporate and product strategy at Barings and board member at FLX), Dan Cwenar (president of data and analytics at Broadridge), and Chad Virgin (managing director of Allianz Life Ventures) confirmed that Bernardsville, New Jersey-based FLX has raised a $10 million in capital via a growth equity round. Barings (an asset management subsidiary of MassMutual, a U.S. insurance company, and no stranger to supporting allies to fundsters) led the round, which also included participation from Allianz Life Ventures (the VC arm of a mulitnational's U.S. life insurer which also has an ETF shop subsidiary) and Broadridge (also an ally to fundsters).

The new capital raise values FLX at about $50 million. Watch for Moran and his team to put the $10 million in fresh capital to use via expansion (hiring more personnel) and "technology builds."

"These strategic investments solidify FLX Networks as a leader in modernizing and simplifying the engagement experience between an asset manager and the financial advisor," Moran states.

"This latest funding round will help to accelerate FLX's mission and scale the technology platform," Bavin states, lauding FLX for expanding "access to institutional-quality investment strategies."

Cwenar describes Broadridge's investment in FLX as "a natural fit" given the importance of data and analytics to distribution.

"We look forward to complementing the innovative distribution model FLX has pioneered with our industry leading data and analytics solution," Cwenar states.

Virgin puts FLX's efforts in the context of pandemic-era acceleration of the shift to "easy to use, digital capabilities" for advisors engaging with fund firms.

"FLX can help make this entire process more efficient and provide more opportunities for asset managers and insurance carriers to tap into new insights and data they might not have had previously," Virgin states.

News of FLX's new capital raises comes eight months after Moran and his team updated their brand and less than 2.5 years after they closed their $2.5-million seed round. 

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