A fintech incubator backed by hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard and Nomura’s crypto arm Laser Digital have launched a Web3 platform focused on alternative asset managers.
Brevan Howard and private markets investment firm Hamilton Lane have partnered with the platform, Libre, which uses tokenisation and smart contracts to improve investment execution.
Libre is powered by the Polygon blockchain technology, and has been designed for regulatory-compliant issuance and automated lifecycle management of alternative assets.
It is expected to go live during the first quarter of 2024.
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Natalie Smith, head of the strategy and client partnerships group at Brevan Howard, said that the hedge fund has been involved in the Web3 and blockchain space for years.
“The tokenisation of funds allows us to offer investors a new way to access our strategies, providing them with optionality and further developing our platform to serve client needs. It is for this reason that we have been deeply involved in Libre,” Smith said.
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Alan Howard has been a major supporter of blockchain technology. He has already invested in trading platform Bullish and digital asset custodian Komainu.
His hedge fund, Brevan Howard, launched a dedicated digital assets unit, Brevan Howard Digital, in 2021. Last year, Brevan Howard’s digital assets strategy returned 44%, while its Master fund lost roughly 2% during the same period, Bloombergreported.
Jez Mohideen, chief executive of Laser Digital, said fund tokenisation could boost investor confidence and Libre’s alternative investment management approach was “groundbreaking”.
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