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Halo Investing raises $12 million

Source: Halo

Halo Investing, the world's first and only independent, multi-issuer technology platform for Structured Notes has recently closed a $12 million Series B financing round at an undisclosed valuation from venture capitalists including Allianz Life Ventures, part of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, an affiliate of Piton Investment Management, and William Blair Circle, an affiliate of William Blair.

This investment will help further expand Halo's international footprint, support initiatives that will change the way Structured Notes are purchased, accessed and traded, and expand into new asset classes.

Traditionally, Structured Notes have had minimum investment sizes of over $1 million and have only been accessible by High Net Worth investors. The Halo platform delivers Structured Notes to Advisors around the world and ensures transparency, competition, and price efficiency to all investors. Halo accomplishes this through the power of Halo's disruptive technology and executing on its mission of putting "impact before profits."

Partners with a Common Purpose
Halo aligns with its recent investors' mandate for pursuing open, transparent, and efficient markets to the benefit of all investors. Unlike other platforms, remaining independent allows Halo to deliver to buy-side wealth management channels the best investment for a client in an issuer-agnostic way while ensuring clients' data is completely protected. Additionally, Halo's software helps both Issuers and Buy-Side customers improve their order management workflow and has assisted in making back office and product compliance more efficient, thereby providing a seamless end-to-end Structured Note solution for its partners.

"Allianz Life was especially interested in Halo because of their belief that all investors should have access to the same investment products," said Corey Walther, head of distribution relationship management and business development, Allianz Life. "In addition, they are doing some innovative work with the power of their analytics and automation capabilities, and we are excited to assess how that can be applied to the annuity marketplace."

"Halo's relentless mission to change the world for the better really resonated with us at William Blair," said Jon Zindel, CFO of William Blair. "Coupling this with Halo providing our Advisors with the most disruptive technology in the Structured Note space, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in a company that has already made such an exciting impact around the world."

"Halo was purpose-built for Advisor's needs, having the mantra of putting positive impact before profits," says Jason Barsema, the Co-Founder & President of Halo. "Whether you are a firefighter or a Fortune 500 CEO, ALL investors deserve access to protective investing, done in an independent and unbiased way. This has been the key to making Halo one of the largest platforms in the world, and we couldn't be prouder to have Allianz and William Blair stand by our side on this mission."

Innovative Tools to Help Advisors
From Structured Note education, to content generation, to independent secondary liquidity, the Halo platform gives Advisors the tools they need to understand, evaluate, and execute Structured Notes almost instantly, thereby simplifying and demystifying the complex investment product.

"While Halo was built for the Buy-Side, we have 18 leading Issuers on our platform that really see the value of Halo's mission to disrupt and democratize what has traditionally been dominated by a few select Wall Street banks," says Biju Kulathakal, Halo's Co-Founder & CEO. "We believe that open access where Issuers truly compete and don't pay to access Advisors' orders ultimately keeps the market fair, balanced and transparent. It's what all of us as investors ourselves should expect and demand from our solution providers," Mr. Kulathakal says.

To highlight, Halo:

Delivers the most extensive pre-and post-trade analytics to aid Advisors in making informed decisions across 5 continents.
Offers best-in-class lifecycle management tools, improving risk management and trade monitoring for Advisors, Trade Desks, and Compliance teams.
Runs a proprietary competitive auction process for live trades, promoting transparency, price competition, and best execution.
Focuses on independent secondary liquidity, an issue currently in the market.

At its core, Halo Investing is a technological disruptor to the benefit of investors worldwide. Series B investors, including Allianz Life Ventures, an affiliate of Piton Investment Management, and William Blair Circle, an affiliate of William Blair, invested $12 million because they recognize the current and future impact of the Halo platform. They will be valued partners in Halo's expansion across the globe and into different asset classes. Halo Investing will continue to innovate financial products for the purpose of empowering investors at all levels of wealth to realize their economic goals.

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