London-based fintech LemonEdge (formerly LemonTree Software), has secured funding of USD2.5 million in a heavily oversubscribed fundraising round led by Sidekick Partners, a venture firm with deep ties to the North American private equity industry. Sidekick Partners is joined in this round by investors Tikhon Bernstam, founder of Parse and Scribd, and Lauren Iaslovits, founder of Investran and a pioneer of private capital market technologies.
LemonEdge enables firms in the private equity and financial services industries to digitise complex accounting, many of whom still run on old, ‘insecure’ legacy systems or spreadsheets. The Global Financial Services Application Software Market is worth USD144 billion and expected to grow by 8 per cent by 2025. Modern technology platforms will be at the heart at this transformation. They’re growing at 45 per cent CAGR in a market projected at USD54 billion by 2024. It’s predicted that by then, 67 per cent of the medium and large organizations will be using low-code tools to speed up application delivery at reduced costs.
LemonEdge’s low code platform is fully customisable and automates the complex and time-consuming tasks required for shadow accounting, LP specific performance calculations, and fund administration. The platform also enables real-time scenario modelling with its unique Canvas function. Analysis that typically requires days or weeks on legacy platforms can be completed in seconds using LemonEdge’s platform.
LemonEdge founders Gareth Hewitt (CEO) and Jamie Nascimento (CCO) draw on 20 years of financial, business & marketing experience each, honed from founding previous software companies managing over USD50 billion of alternative assets across three continents. They will use the funding to recruit top talent for development, implementation, and sales in the company’s London and New York offices.
Gareth Hewitt, Co-Founder and CEO of LemonEdge, comments: “We are pleased to have completed a highly successful funding round, and to have the support of such well-renowned investors. For more than 20 years, I’ve seen an astonishing amount of financial data inside legacy applications or spreadsheets that do not communicate and that are insecure. LemonEdge’s low-code platform delivers the next generation of private equity performance and accounting software, without dependence on workarounds. LemonEdge is 10x faster to develop and deploy, and it is scalable, adaptable, and secure.”
Lauren Iaslovits founded Investran, the widely used private capital markets technology solution, and sold the business to Sungard (currently FIS) in 2004. Iaslovits currently serves as special advisor to CEPRES, a platform for private market investment professionals. Iaslovits comments: “LemonEdge brings a complete no- and low-code solution to the challenges of general ledger accounting for the private capital market. The ability to simulate scenarios without risking reporting data is fundamentally empowering, and I can see clear benefit to fund administrators in terms of cost and time saving in the enterprise data space. This is the natural evolution of private capital technology, driven by a dynamic team.”
Tikhon Bernstam founded technology companies Scribd (private) and Parse, which he sold to Facebook for USD85 million. Bernstam comments: “LemonEdge is the first instance of proper low-code, platform-led software to address the needs and development challenges faced by financial services. The ability to rapidly deploy off-the-shelf solutions, and to empower a 10x reduction in development time, will open up this hugely under-served segment in the same way that low-code platforms empowered the mobile software boom.”
Jamie Nascimento, Co-Founder and CCO of LemonEdge, adds: “We drive informed decision-making with the future of tailored and complete accounting solutions. Our product is best-in-class, and we are focused on building the best possible team to help grow LemonEdge. Our customers are the next generation of financial services professionals who have grown up in an ever-smarter and more connected world – they expect solutions which not only match their needs, but empower their capabilities.”
