Titanbay, a new online platform, has launched enabling small and medium-sized institutional and professional private investors to easily access and strategically invest in a curated selection of top-tier private equity funds.Based in London, Titanbay has been launched by a team of industry insiders with extensive experience from a range of leading funds and institutions. The management team is led by serial entrepreneur Thomas Eskebaek, who has run multiple companies, from technology to investing, and previously worked at Bain & Company and Eight Roads. The team also includes COO Laura Heely, who moved into technology strategy after beginning her career in investment advisory at J.P. Morgan, and Head of Investor Relations Adam Harrison, former Managing Director at Capital Group, and previously Standard Life.
Titanbay is backed by more than 30 investors and advisors with combined more than 100 years of industry experience and extensive networks acquired at leading firms including CVC, EQT, Hg Capital, Morgan Stanley and Bain & Company. Members of the advisory board include Thomas Schleicher, the CIO of KIRKBI, the Kirk Kristiansen family’s private holding and investment company, Marcello Bottoli former CEO of Samsonite and Operating Partner for Advent International and Jussi Nyrölä, a former Senior Director at EQT.
Titanbay’s innovative technology platform provides access to allocations in leading private equity funds, removing the barriers to entry of high minimum commitments and onerous investment processes that typically exclude smaller investors. Qualified investors can access the same top-tier private equity funds as the largest institutional investors with low investment minimums and low fees, giving them complete control and flexibility over where and how much to invest.
For General Partners (GPs), Titanbay adds value by opening a new $50tn underserved pool of capital from smaller institutions, family offices and private investors, while handling all of the operational complexities that come with smaller investments. Titanbay is a first-close LP, with fast and straightforward investment decision-making processes.
Fund selection is led by Titanbay’s Investment Advisory Board, which includes Thomas Schleicher, CIO of KIRKBI, the Kirk Kristiansen family’s private holding and investment company and Oliver Burgel, former Chief Executive of Barings Europe.
Investors are further supported by Titanbay’s proprietary portfolio analysis tool, which helps small and medium financial institutions create intelligent, thoughtful PE investment strategies that meet their particular investment criteria. It also facilitates investors’ allocation decisions by enabling them to view their portfolio in several different ways such as by strategy, sector and geography, providing information on NAV and cash flow projections and running simulations that visualise how potential new investments could affect their portfolio.
Titanbay launched to a closed network in spring this year and has already successfully completed its first investments. The company aims to curate a diversified selection of around eight to 12 new funds a year onto its platform.
Thomas Eskebaek, CEO of Titanbay, says: “Our digital platform opens up strategic private equity investing to a whole new class of investors. We believe investing well in private equity requires access, diversification and discipline. We estimate that the cost to smaller institutional investors such as pension funds, trusts, charities, institutions and family offices of being effectively excluded from strategically investing in private equity runs into hundreds of billions of dollars per year. Titanbay sets out to redress this by providing our members with access to the top-performing funds and the analysis tools they require to construct a thoughtful private equity and alternatives portfolio akin to those of leading large investors. Alternatives and private equity’s illiquid nature drives enhanced returns and, with a thoughtful, strategic and diversified investment approach, can help investors to create a more balanced portfolio and weather broader market turbulence effectively.”
