Unlocking New Asset Classes and Rapid Integration for Alternative Asset Management Firms

We deliver everything required for alternative asset management firms to migrate away from spreadsheets and legacy solutions and pursue the most lucrative opportunities available.

Empowering Alternative Asset Management Firms to Innovate at the Speed of Markets

The rise of alternatives means asset management firms face a constant need to innovate. There are always new opportunities that can be translated into outsized returns, from the rise and fluctuation of cryptocurrencies to new ways of investing in commodities, private equity, real estate, and infrastructure.

We help you move into these markets quickly and view the opportunities and risks they bring across your entire portfolio, helping you hone your edge.

Challenges

Overreliance on spreadsheets, heightened demand for less liquid assets, and difficulty performing risk analysis and accessing insights on potential deals

Solution

Spreadsheet migration tools, powerful analytics and scenario analysis applications, foundational financial components with a transparent source license, and consistent use of models from pre-trade to portfolio management

Result

Access insights in a fraction of the time of legacy methods and enter new markets rapidly

Our Alternative Asset Management Success Stories

Over the years, our solutions for application development, cloud migration, and risk management have helped alternative asset management clients rapidly react to new opportunities and take a comprehensive view of risk across portfolios. Here are some of the highlights.

Challenge

Replacing giant but fragile spreadsheets and disconnected point solutions with a robust and flexible platform

Solution

Consolidated portfolio dashboard that includes asset allocation, performance, and risk metrics

Elastic compute infrastructure to ensure necessary scale
Transparent source code enabling easy flexibility and extensibility
Graphical visualization to quickly see effects of changes
What-if analyses, filters, and drill-down options for more details

Result

Less time spent on infrastructure and more time spent on building a competitive advantage via new clients and emerging opportunities

Challenge

Modeling and representing cryptocurrency assets for portfolio and risk management

Solution

Extended definitions, market data, and models to accurately represent cryptocurrencies and derivatives

New asset category and parameters created for cryptocurrencies
Links to multiple crypto exchanges and the addition of algorithms for price variations
Option to specify trading exchange for buy and sell
Alternative pricing models and volatilities to evaluate effects

Result

Rapid adaptation of core system for pricing and trading needs and deployment to production, followed by risk management shortly after

Challenge

Eliminate silos of spreadsheets and one-off solutions to improve client service and operational efficiency

Solution

Quant platform with integrated development environment to accelerate deployment of bespoke analytics

Plug-and-play integration of internal and external data sources
Incorporate in-house quant libraries and pricing models for operational consistency
Automate manual tasks with batch job scheduler
Create customized web applications for risk and reconciliation reporting

Result

Turnaround time for new functionality now measured in days, not weeks or months

Challenge

No end-to-end infrastructure, lack of standardization across asset classes, and overlong timelines for adding or updating functionality

Solution

Cloud-based platform that can scale workloads, automate jobs, and support standard and proprietary analytics

Integrated market data, proprietary quant libraries and pricing models
Elastic cloud enables faster results and better insights
More frequent and granular risk analysis, instead of just EOD captures
More rapid development by moving from C++ to Python

Result

More time spent on tasks that add value. This bank can now do the same jobs using 10% of the IT and quant resources.

Challenge

Improve delivery of bespoke reports or benchmarks to clients on demand, including integration with OpenFin

Solution

Build custom applications with with our application development framework in just a few weeks

Transaction cost analysis report populated with market, trade, and client data
Ability for agents or clients to download PDF reports of pre-built scenarios
Ability for clients to customize reports with Jupyter Notebooks
Availability via web or OpenFin

Result

Built a new application in the same time as it used to take for one custom report. Clients now receive reports and benchmarks within the same day.

Our Technology. Your Vision

Our platform is as powerful as it is versatile, delivering high-performance solutions that enable alternative asset management firms to quickly move into additional markets and integrate new opportunities with existing portfolios.

Cloud Infrastructure

Scalable and controlled cloud environments delivering performance, security, and cost savings

Developer Experience

Collaborative tools and workflows to increase software development efficiency and accelerate time to market

Applications

Prebuilt and extensible tools for analysis, trading, and risk management

Portfolio Management

Optimize your trades and holdings with comprehensive and customizable analytics across the enterprise

Risk Management

Aggregate, model, and manage risk across all asset classes from a single platform, using standard or proprietary pricing models and analytics

Sales & Trading

Integrate diverse datasets and analytics to evaluate performance across books, portfolios, and asset classes

Application Development

Build, test, configure, and deploy cloud-native applications at scale through our developer platform

Cloud Migration

Leverage cloud computing resources for faster results and better insights from your secure, automated, and cost-effective cloud domain

Hear from Our Clients

Let some of the markets’ most innovative alternative asset management firms tell you how Beacon enabled them to consolidate risk management, extend market data and models, and rapidly adopt new asset classes.

Beacon’s flexible and extensible software model and deep integration of Snowflake are enabling us to deliver greater value to the business more quickly.

Caroline ChangSoftware Engineer and Analyst, Blackstone

With Beacon’s flexible and extensible data model, we are able to answer a greater number of increasingly sophisticated questions and deliver value to each business more quickly.

Thomas PologrutoChief Data Architect, Blackstone

Beacon is a state-of-the-art application development platform that enables quants, data scientists and engineers to model and manage risk in a more scalable way.

John StecherChief Technology Officer, Blackstone

The Beacon Core system is competitive with and even superior to systems at the large investment banks.

Head Quant and CTOIntegrated Portfolio Intelligence

Go Deeper

News and perspectives on how fintech is changing risk analytics, data management, and market strategy for the modern alternative asset management firm

July 13, 2023
Beacon Platform

JULY 13, 2023 – NEW YORK – Beacon Platform is delighted to announce its recognition in the Chartis BuySide50 report, securing a top 20 placement.

May 2, 2023
Kirat Singh

Software has become a vital part of capital markets activities, helping firms capture emerging opportunities, adapt to rapidly changing market conditions, and provide effective liquidity

April 4, 2023
Pawel Potocki

“Data without analytics is noise, and analytics without data is useless.” Adam Lichtenstein, Managing Director, Technology and Innovations, Blackstone Beacon is an exceptional quantitative developer