Gravitas, a leading co-sourcing platform and consultant for technology, research and risk solutions to the alternative investment and financial services industries, announced their expansion into the Midwest with the formation of "Gravitas Chicago."
The office is Gravitas' fifth location, following the company's headquarters in New York and operations in Greenwich, CT, Mumbai, and Ahmedabad, India.
Gravitas Chicago, an initial joint venture with a long standing technology integration partner, Apogee Strategies LLC, will provide Chicago and Midwest region clients the full suite of Gravitas' services, including a local Network Operating Center and onsite support. "We have been engaged with Chicago-based alternative investment firms for several years, and have been looking for the right opportunity to bring our co-sourcing platform to bear in the local market" said Gravitas Senior Managing Director Mark Seaman. "Through work with mutual clients, we realized that the best way to accomplish this was by combining Gravitas' deep domain expertise in alternative investment with Apogee's on-the-ground technology team and extensive experience in the Chicago area."
The combined entity has more than 20 highly skilled networking, desktop and systems integration professionals based in Chicago, and operates two (2) state-of-the-art local data centers in addition to its core data center hub in NYC. Gravitas' cloud offering enables access to full service customized cloud computing as well as low-latency exchange connectivity for algorithmic and high-frequency trading firms."Our objective is to harness the best capabilities of both groups across the joint venture, creating a dynamic technology management, consulting, support and systems offering that is unmatched in the alternative investment space" echoed Christopher Burnett, Manager and Chief Executive of Apogee. "The complementary skill sets and services of Gravitas and Apogee provide financial services firms in the Midwest with one-stop access to address technology and business operations issues."
Ken Meister, Chief Operating Officer of Evanston Capital Management, an investment manager with $4.2Billion under management added, "We have engaged both th firms extensively to improve the operational efficiencies of our business, as we continually strive to enhance the operational and technological capabilities of our firm. The union of Gravitas and Apogee is welcome news and a natural fit as we have found them both to be excellent partners in helping us propel our firm forward."