Left: Michael Pusateri, CEO and Founder of Siepe; Right: Mark Schultis, the new president of Siepe [Photos: LinkedIn]
Dallas-based Siepe LLC, a provider of software and technology-enabled services for private credit and CLO managers, has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by WestCap, a San Francisco-based strategic operating and investing firm with $6 billion in assets under management.
“The new capital will help us continue our momentum in deploying integrated solutions and best-in-class service for fund managers in the private credit and broadly syndicated bank debt sector,” Siepe Founder and CEO Michael Pusateri said in a statement. “Our mission is to help credit managers better leverage their data to reduce operational risk and increase alpha.”
Siepe said the investment will drive a multi-product roadmap, including the expansion of its AI and machine learning capabilities, and strengthen strategic partnerships. It said those initiatives will help support the accelerated capital flows and eliminate inconsistent data and processes seen across the collateralized loan obligation (CLO) and private credit ecosystem.
Named after the Italian word for ‘hedge’
Founded in 2012, Siepe is pronounced see-EPP-ay, derived from the Italian word for “hedge.” The company said it has designed solutions and services that enable strategic business and investment decisions for the front, middle, and back-office teams of private credit asset managers and CLOs.
The company’s suite of solutions brings entire investment lifecycles into perspective, providing customers with a single source of truth and full transparency into real-time, accurate data to increase oversight and streamline workflows, the company said. By leveraging AI technology, Siepe says its solutions also eliminate manual processes that can be used to drive bottom-line growth for its clients’ customers and optimize investments.
Growth and support
Siepe said that as private credit continues to be one of the fastest growing asset classes within the alternatives market, the firm is committed to enhancing the efficiency, data integrity, compliance support and scalability of CLO and private credit managers. The company said it has seen significant growth across technology and service business lines in in the first half of 2024 with private credit managers.
That growth includes adding 19 CLO and private credit deals with eight top-tier U.S. CLO managers, which accounts for over $7.7 billion in new assets under administration, the firm said. Siepe also onboarded two new front-office software clients, one with $80 billion AUM in private credit assets and the other with $6 billion in total AUM, and launched a new private credit fund.
The company said its team will leverage WestCap’s experience—as founders, operators, and managers—in the private markets ecosystem, specifically around financial technology and data management workflows. Siepe is also an early and material investor in private market-leading innovators iCapital and Addepar.
WestCap’s support of Siepe will be led by:
- The firm’s founder, Laurence A. Tosi, former CFO of both Airbnb and Blackstone, and COO of Merill Lynch Investment Banking and Trading. As a founder and investor, he created several industry-changing platforms to solve some of the most pressing challenges in private markets, including Ipreo, TMC Bonds and iLevel.
- WestCap Partner, co-COO, and head of Strategic Operators Kevin Marcus, who will join the Siepe board and bring his experience as the co-founder and former President of iPreo (acquired by IHS Markit), a provider of market intelligence, data, and workflow solutions for global capital markets.
- Ryan Benevides, principal at WestCap, who will also join the Siepe board, and previously held roles within Blackstone Credit.
“The growth of private credit markets has outpaced investment in technology and innovation, causing inefficiency, lack of insight and control over private assets,” Tosi said in a statement. “These are the challenges that Siepe is addressing with a trusted solution that brings the entire investment lifecycle into perspective.”
Leadership
In conjunction with the new funding, Siepe said it has appointed Mark Schultis as president.
Schultis joined Siepe as an adviser in October 2023, bringing nearly two decades of experience focused on the credit and CLO world. Previously, he was CEO at SE2 LLC, and a partner and senior vice president at IHS Markit running the Wall Street Office business.
“I’m thrilled to join Siepe at this pivotal moment in their journey,” Schultis said in a statement.. “Michael and team have always taken a technology-first approach to building products and services for their customers, which is a key differentiator in the market today. This new funding will accelerate our ability to scale our business, better support our customers and drive innovation in the industry, particularly around connectivity, quality, and data transparency.”
The new executive and board membership lineup complements Siepe’s deep bench of senior leadership and extensive industry experience, the company said.
Prior to founding Siepe, Pusateri served as chief technology officer at Carlson Capital and Highland Capital Management. The company’s board members also include Robert Tomicic, a former founder of Virtus Partners, and Ann Kono, former chief information and risk officer for Ares Management Corp.
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