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London-based crypto-centric fintech Elwood Technologies has signed a deal for a “strategic integration” with Bloomberg’s Asset and Management Investment Manager (AIM).
Per a press release issued by Elwood, the integration will see Bloomberg’s AIM tool offer clients the crypto capabilities provided by Ellwood’s crypto trading platform. The Bloomberg buy-side order management system is currently used by 15,000 institutional clients who collectively manage over $17 trillion in assets across 900 firms.
“The integration combines Elwood’s institutional cryptocurrency trading capabilities with Bloomberg’s data, analytics, and workflow tools, enabling the financial institutions and investment managers on the AIM platform to capture and manage their crypto investments alongside the rest of their portfolio for a unified investment process," according to the press release.
The integration is expected to be completed and made available to Elwood and Bloomberg AIM clients in Q2 2022.
"We are very pleased to be able to offer Bloomberg AIM clients integrated access to Elwood's market-leading cryptocurrency trading platform," said said Ian Peckett, Global Head of Buy-Side Product at Bloomberg, in a statement accompanying the release. He added that clients' investment portfolios increasingly include "alternative asset classes such as cryptocurrencies."
Alan Howard’s Crypto Moves
Billionaire British hedge fund manager Alan Howard initially set up Elwood in 2018 as an asset manager, but last year the firm pivoted towards crypto trading software.
Howard has invested a lot of money in crypto startups recently. In summer 2021, Block.one subsidiary Bullish Global (a crypto exchange), went public after a $9 billion merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) called Far Peak.
The company is backed by a coterie of billionaires, including Howard and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Thiel previously led a $230 million funding round—which included Howard—for BitDAO, the “world’s largest DAO-directed treasury”, an organization that aims to support decentralized finance (DeFi) by offering grants and investing in DeFi projects.
While investing in Bullish and BitDAO, Howard also led a $25 million extension to digital asset custodian Copper’s Series B investment round. At the end of 2015, Howard joined a Series B funding round led by Dan Tapiero's 10T Holdings for Toronto-based crypto lending firm Ledn. The round raised $70 million and funded Ledn’s first Bitcoin-backed mortgages.
Last January, Howard helped raise $20 million for decentralized Ethereum-based video transcoding network Livepeer.