Schroders has entered the digital asset space by acquiring a minority stake in Forteus, an asset manager focused on blockchain technology and digital assets.
Forteus serves as the asset management arm of diversified digital asset investment firm, Numeus Group.
Schroders’ decision to invest in Forteus will allow the firm to support its ongoing education and research in the digital assets space and to develop its tokenisation strategy.
“Blockchain will be a catalyst for fundamental change within asset management, financial services at large, and many other industries more broadly,” said Peter Harrison, group CEO at Schroders.
“It not only has the potential to transform the efficiency of existing solutions but will drive the democratisation of private assets; it represents a new frontier of technological and financial innovation.”
Various investment solutions will be offered by Forteus, including customised portfolios of external managers, yield generation, actively managed thematic portfolios and in the future, tokenisation.
“Together, we will build upon Numeus’ expertise in digital assets, technology and quantitative research combined with Schroders’ leading brand, vast capabilities in asset management and global distribution,” said Nobel Gulati, CEO at Numeus Group.
“This will enable us to serve investors who up until now have struggled to access robust investment opportunities in this fast-evolving asset class.”