An established, award-winning financial services company is vowing to “create huge efficiencies and scalability” for the alternative investments industry by implementing Blockchain and “tokenizing an antiquated system.”

DarcMatter is an online platform which connects investors with prominent venture capital, private equity and hedge funds. Since launching in 2014, the company has gained a global footprint connecting more than 150 funds with 1,300 investors who are on the lookout for new opportunities.

However, DarcMatter executives claim the alternative fund sector now faces a “critical inflection point,” and major issues could go unresolved unless wide-ranging technological reforms are enforced.

“The precipice of necessary change”

DarcMatter believes that a lack of transparency in alternative funds is creating headaches for everyone, to the extent where compliance costs are soaring and third-party fees are eating into profits. Worse still, most transactions and conversations between fund managers and their investors are taking place offline, muddying the waters further and increasing the likelihood of costly mistakes being made.

Ever-changing regulations around the world are also affecting levels of cross-border investment. Investors are denied freedom to make their money grow because geographical boundaries are difficult to navigate, meaning exciting opportunities with asset managers on the other side of the world are too often out of reach.

These swirling criticisms surrounding difficulty of access and opacity have led DarcMatter to conclude that the industry is on “the precipice of necessary change” with Blockchain billed as the best solution for dismantling these downsides.

Introducing the DM Coin

DarcMatter’s distributed ledger will use NEM-based technology, which it believes is better suited for building a financial services ecosystem than other alternatives such as ERC20.

At the heart of its platform will be the DarcMatter Coin (DMC) which will allow investments to be executed through smart contracts. The DMC is going to be based on proof of importance, or PoI for short, which generates added value for token holders depending on the volume of their transactions and how many available tokens there are.

DarcMatter’s white paper argues that its platform’s permissioned Blockchain “permits for the level of discretion and privacy that is often required for the world of alternative funds and investments in general.”

Building on its success

DarcMatter is confident that the “transparency, security and compliance” its Blockchain platform provides will help the alternative investments industry thrive – with global wealth predicted to soar in the coming years.

The company says it is already trusted by major investment and advisory firms including Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, AIG and JPMorgan, many of which utilize DarcMatter to source new and exciting investment opportunities.

Currently operational in 24 countries with team members based in the US, Ukraine, China and South Korea – DarcMatter’s public pre-sale is due to open on March 22. This will be followed by a crowdsale, which will open on May 7.

Its NEM Blockchain is due to be released in its alpha phase during the second quarter of 2018 and will go live with optimizations in the third quarter. From here, it is hoped Blockchain will be rolled out to its institutional clients, paving the way for DarcMatter to enter the European market towards the end of the year.

DarcMatter’s co-founders are Sang Lee and Natasha Bansgopaul. Sang is the CEO and a keen advocate of regulatory changes in fintech. Bansgopaul, the company’s chief operating officer, has more than a decade’s experience in leadership roles at companies in the Fortune 50 and Fortune 100, including a corporate role at PepsiCo. The team’s CTO, Stan Solodkyy has over 14 years of software experience, ranging from financial institution integration with SWIFT, to web development with European banks.

Boasting a team with “deep financial, technical and operational expertise,” the company seems determined to make the industry a better place for asset managers and investors alike.