Balmain backs Caruso with $3.2 million investment for global expansion

New Zealand fund administration startup Caruso has raised $3.2 million in an equity round led by private credit firm Balmain. 

Founded in 2023, Caruso is a SaaS platform designed to simplify fund management operations. This includes investor onboarding, compliance processes, and ownership tracking. 

The company says its platform consolidates these tasks into a single system, addressing common pain points in the industry such as fragmented data and inefficient workflows.

Since its launch, Caruso has grown to manage over $15 billion in assets across more than 400 funds and 27,000 investors.

According to Caruso’s co-CEO and co-founder Mark Hurley, the platform is unique because it was built by fund managers for fund managers – so they understand customer challenges. 

Hurley also said Caruso is able to release new features every fortnight and works closely with its clients to improve and adapt the platform quickly.

“Caruso is an end-to-end solution, not just a registry platform or onboarding tool. It enables fund managers to handle all their operations in one place, creating real value across their entire organisation,” Hurley said.

This fresh funding round follows a $3 million seed round in November 2023, which included backing from Icehouse Ventures, GD1, Pushpay founder Chris Heaslip, and Gull Oil.

Caruso has said it will be using the new cash injection to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, enter North America, and further develop its technology.

Balmain’s CEO Andrew Griffin said the decision to invest in Caruso stemmed from utilising the platform himself.

“We originally started talking to Caruso as a software provider for investor management, but after seeing what Mark and Oliver had built, and continue to grow, we simply had to invest. It was so compelling,” Griffin said.

Hurley said despite having a great deal of interest from different investors, Caruso chose Balmain as its partner “for a reason”.

“It’s always great validation when a customer decides they believe in your vision so much they want to invest,” Hurley said.

“Both Oliver and I are looking forward to soaking up as much knowledge as we can from them.”

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