Caruso secures $3.2 million in strategic investment led by Balmain
Caruso, a modern unit registry and fund administration software company founded in 2023, has secured a $3.2 million strategic investment led by Balmain, one of Australia’s most influential names in private credit. Last year, Caruso raised $3 million and the round was led by VC Icehouse Ventures, with support from GD1, Chris Heaslip, founder of Pushpay, and the Rae family of Gull Oil.
Today, fund managers operate countless software systems to manage their fund operations, and for the most part, these systems aren’t fit for purpose and don’t integrate with each other. Caruso provides fund managers with a single source of truth for their investor data, so they can manage all their fund operations effortlessly in one place – onboard investors, complete AML/KYC, raise capital, issue distributions, manage ownership and everything in between.
Caruso’s unique approach seems to have struck a chord, rapidly gaining traction across both the private credit and real estate sectors. Since its founding less than two years ago, Caruso has grown to manage more than $15 billion in assets across 400+ funds and 27,000+ investors. This software has drawn praise from industry leaders, like Marquette CEO Toby Lewis, who remarked, “What Caruso has built is utopian for fund managers, and we think it will become THE technology for everyone who does what we do.”
“Fund managers today, whether they manage $20 million or $20 billion in assets, face common challenges: poor investor experiences, fragmented data, a lack of automation, and tedious internal processes,” said Mark Hurley, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Caruso. “The existing registry software stack is clearly broken—both investors and fund managers are frustrated.
“Our approach at Caruso is unique from incumbents for three reasons,” Hurley continued. “First, this software was initially developed within a fund management business, we intimately understand our customers’ challenges because we’ve dealt with them ourselves. Second, building Caruso on modern frameworks allows us to release new features every two weeks, enabling close collaboration with clients to quickly improve and adapt the platform—something our competitors simply can’t match. Lastly, Caruso is an end-to-end solution, not just a registry platform or onboarding tool. It enables fund managers to handle all their operations in one place, creating real value across their entire organisation.”
Balmain has played a pivotal role in Australian private credit for more than four decades, providing essential services for borrowers, investors, brokers and lenders. Balmain writes $4 billion in loans annually, has its own lending programmes that exceed $8 billion in receivables and administers a further $30 billion in assets for third party lenders across a diverse range of investments.
Balmain’s CEO, Andrew Griffin says that their investment in Caruso is unique but actually came about by chance. “We have always invested heavily in technology to provide a point of difference. Online portals and Apps enabling instant decisioning is a key offering, particularly for our investors,” said Andrew Griffin, Balmain’s long-time CEO. “We originally started talking to Caruso as a software provider for investor management, but after seeing what Mark and Oliver had built, and continue to grow, we simply had to invest. It was so compelling. Caruso will become a global leader, redefining how private market fund managers operate.”
The capital from Balmain’s investment will allow Caruso to accelerate its growth in Asia-Pacific, enter North America and further invest in its industry-leading technology.
“We’re thrilled to have Balmain involved,” added Hurley. “It’s always great validation when a customer decides they believe in your vision so much they want to invest. We’ve had a lot of interest from potential investors, but we chose Balmain for a reason. Andrew and Michael have built an incredible business, and both Oliver and I are looking forward to soaking up as much knowledge as we can from them. We’re already working closely with Balmain’s internal team to enhance Caruso for private credit fund managers like themselves.”
