Doug Haynes, Council Advisors Managing Director, Hazeltree CEO, Secures $14m investment from FINTOP Capital

Hazeltree, a provider of treasury and liquidity management technology, recently raised $14 million in funding from Fintop Capital and Hamilton Lane. Fintop co-founder and managing partner Rick Kushel will join the board at Hazeltree as part of the deal.

Accelerated Growth

Based in New York, with offices in London and Hong Kong, Hazeltree is bringing efficiency to a sector that desperately needs it. The team will use the money to expand customer support, scale its commercial model, and innovate the product suite. These changes will be completed under the supervision of Kushel.

"We were greatly impressed by the Hazeltree business and the strength of its model in the alternative asset management space, particularly hedge funds and private equity," said Kushel. "I am very excited to be joining the board of such a dynamic growth company and helping it build on its success to date."

Hazeltree provides cloud-based solutions to investment management firms, making it possible for clients to improve operations by reducing costs, reconciling accounts, and identifying opportunities across the board. Hazeltree’s technology delivers transparency to financial professionals, allowing them to make smarter decisions while managing margin requirements.

CEO Tushar Amin and Executive Chair Doug Haynes are leaders in treasury and liquidation management. From counterparty interactions to fees, the two are committed to helping companies simultaneously streamline operations and mitigate risks. This isn’t an easy goal in the sector, particularly when it’s so common for details to slip through the cracks. Amin and Doug Haynes have an answer to these concerns, as they’ve both seen how the cloud can help professionals organize their workload and improve annual growth rate.

Hazeltree, Fintop and Hamilton Lane

The two major players at the heart of the funding include Fintop and Hamilton Lane. With more than $700 million in committed capital across five funds, Fintop is firmly rooted in the fintech space. The firm’s focus is funding early-stage fintech companies, and it’s clear why Hazeltree caught Fintop’s eye. This company is attempting to revolutionize an industry that’s relied for far too long on legacy systems. There are a number of ways that Hazeltree's technology can be manipulated and adapted to expand financial services.

Hamilton Lane provides solutions for wealth investors (both institutional and private) and operates in offices around the world. Erik Hirsch, vice chairman and head of strategic initiatives at Hamilton Lane, commented, “We have a long history of partnering with, and investing in, leading companies that utilize technology to bring greater efficiency to the private markets. As a user of the platform, we have found Hazeltree to be a transformative technology solution, allowing us to increase the speed and reliability of our treasury operations and gain greater security over our cash management processes, all while expanding our visibility into overall funding and currency needs for our clients.” Given his firsthand experience with Hazeltree’s products, his involvement is further confirmation that Hazeltree is satisfying a demand in the fintech sector.

Hazeltree’s executive team is pleased with the results of the funding round and what it means for the company’s future. Executive Chair Doug Haynes stated, “Amid market volatility and economic uncertainty, this investment affirms Hazeltree’s powerful and resilient business model. We are thrilled to have the support of such high-caliber investment partners as Fintop and Hamilton Lane joining us as we bring Hazeltree into its next era of growth.”

Haynes had seen plenty of offers during funding rounds for Hazeltree, but after carefully evaluating the choices, the decision was clear. “We saw extensive interest from the investment community, but Fintop’s operating expertise stood above all others,” Doug Haynes added. “We couldn’t be happier to be partnering with Fintop and Hamilton Lane. Their respective reputations in the industry speak for themselves.”

CEO Amin said, “Fintop and Hamilton Lane’s combined investing and operating experience in helping scale fintech companies is unmatched, and we’re excited to have Rick join our board to provide his guidance.” Amin believes that this money will be key to unlocking the company’s growth goals.

The Future of Fintech

Despite all the developments in technology, it's still common to find financial professionals who are manually moving cash between entities or managing projections on spreadsheets. Fintech has sprung up as a means to solve many of these issues, but updating systems is rarely ever as straightforward as it seems. While Fintech was maturing as an industry in the 2010s, Capital Markets Tech had been around for close to 10 year. As Fintech has gained a foothold in space of Consumer and Transcation Banking, the Capital Market Tech has benefitted greatly, specifically in the areas of cash management and payments. Hazeltree is one of the major beneficiaries of this technological advancement and has also been leading the way in future innovation.

Hazeltree, which builds on BaaS (Banking as a Service), is attempting to close the gap between financial professionals and technology. Its software helps free up bandwidth so professionals can focus on the big picture, which can help companies improve industry positions. Now that Fintech is coming to B2B, business are innovating their processes. Due to the fact that Hedge Funds and Private Equity firms are among the most data-hungry sectors out there, tech solutions that optimize the use of data become more attractive. Doug Haynes and his team are driving the solutions that make it possible to introduce automation, minimize mistakes, and reduce costs. The $14 million investment, courtesy of two of the leading investors in the fintech space, is a show of support for the company's ability to forge a new path for its customers. Fintech is only going to get bigger in the coming decades and Hazeltree is proudly at the forefront of the transition.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.