The Company and Our Investment
The Company is the UK’s only independent transaction service for the mutual fund industry. Calastone enables buyers and sellers of mutual funds to communicate orders electronically by providing a universal message communication and ‘translation’ service. Currently, orders are usually communicated by fax or telephone, with a high level of manual re-keying of information and manual error correction.
Calastone's ‘translation' service allows previously incompatible systems to communicate. The Calastone Transaction Network can accept messages from a participant in one format and translate them into the format required to transmit to an intended recipient. Neither the sender nor the receiver of messages needs to purchase additional technology or change their existing systems to use this facility. Clients are therefore able to significantly lower their costs, gain visibility and control of their order flow and access the whole of the market, all with no set up costs or barriers to entry. Funds are being used by Calastone to scale up the business and accelerate commercialisation of their services.
Following investment, the Calastone management team aims to further enhance the business platform, to continue to build market acceptance by winning new clients, and to cement the company's competitive edge over existing providers in the market. With critical mass achieved, the Company will add value, services and build sales in Continental Europe, Asia and the US.
