As part of this launch, the Group intends to open an office in Luxembourg to show its commitment to the local market, which represents a significant opportunity for the alternative investment banking solution.

This follows a lengthy and highly successful ‘private launch’ of the platform within Alpha’s existing client base. This provided the Group with the time to gather user insights and develop further enhancements as it worked towards launching ‘Version 2’ of the platform, released in May 2021.

Alpha’s business has been built on providing high-impact financial solutions and simplifying banking processes, backed by a growing investment in technology. Its institutional division was launched in 2017 and grew over 100% against H1 last year, led by a team that has over a decade’s experience working within the alternative investment industry. Having invested significantly in understanding the challenges that alternative investment institutions face when opening and managing bank accounts, Alpha has decentralised its technology stack to develop a bespoke front and back-end platform solely focused on the industry. This includes building a dedicated in-house team for effective onboarding, settlement and compliance of funds and their investment entities. The Group now offers a service that traditional providers have struggled for years to provide to alternative investment funds, with the result that overseas bank accounts that would have taken months to open are now typically taking less than a week.

Alternative Investment Managers find that opening overseas bank accounts and completing transactions are often held up by policies and technologies that are mass-market in nature and therefore not designed to efficiently cater for the complexity of investment structures. This in turn means that opening bank accounts and managing transactions is time-consuming, resource intensive and expensive, both for traditional bank providers but also the clients they serve.

Morgan Tillbrook, Chief Executive Officer of Alpha FX commented: "This launch is a direct result of our ability to attract top talent combined with our investment in technology. Adam Dowling, Managing Director of Alpha Platform Solutions, has been researching and developing our alternative banking strategy since joining in 2018, together with Sam Marsh who co-founded our institutional division. Opening an office in Luxembourg reflects our focus on further expanding in a measured way, concentrating on those areas and markets where we know that we can differentiate and therefore grow sustainably.”

Adam Dowling, Managing Director of Alpha Platform Solutions, said “Our vision is to establish Alpha as a leading provider of alternative banking solutions to the alternative investment space. Today’s launch is the culmination of over two years of development work, an extensive research programme, and 10 years’ prior experience working in the alternative investment space. It’s also the result of a team that have been working tirelessly behind the scenes and I would like to thank everyone for their hunger, drive and commitment. As a Group, we are deeply committed to making a difference to Investment Managers of Alternative assets. Whilst the platform is setting new standards within the industry, we are still at the very start of our journey and will be continuing to invest to break new ground in the near future.”