Infocus\u00a0has received a minority investment from Scarcity Partners, a specialist growth investor in investment managers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarcity Partners said it has taken a \u201cminority position\u201d but did not\u00a0disclose\u00a0the size or financial terms,\u00a0stating\u00a0it reflects the \u201cstructural shift\u201d underway in the Australian advice market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Infocus\u00a0was founded by chief executive Darren Steinhardt and his wife Stephanie in\u00a01994\u00a0and has\u00a0150\u00a0advice firms, 270\u00a0advisers\u00a0and almost $21\u00a0billion in funds under advice\u00a0(FUA)\u00a0and $4\u00a0billion in funds under management\u00a0(FUM).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarcity said: \u201cScarcity Partners is providing long-term strategic capital to fuel sustained growth and continued investment in infrastructure, technology, investment\u00a0solutions\u00a0and operational capability across the\u00a0Infocus\u00a0adviser community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDemand for high-quality financial advice is growing as Australians face increasingly complex retirement,\u00a0wealth\u00a0and investment decisions, while simultaneously, compliance obligations, technology requirements and client servicing expectations continue to rise. Scale and sustained investment are becoming key determinants of success for independent advice businesses.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steinhardt\u00a0said: \u201cThis is a partnership entered from a position of strength and conviction. After more than 30 years of\u00a0independent growth, we believe the timing is right, the fit is right, and the opportunity is right to\u00a0strengthen what we already do well and accelerate where we are going.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMost importantly, this is good news for the advisers, advisory\u00a0firms\u00a0and clients we support. It gives\u00a0us greater capacity to innovate; invest in better technology, stronger operating platforms, expanded\u00a0capability and deeper support for our community and helping advisers spend more time doing what\u00a0matters most: serving clients.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u00a0said\u00a0Infocus\u00a0deliberately sought a partner aligned with its long-term outlook and\u00a0founder-led culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier this year,\u00a0it hired Phil Creswell from Count<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0newly-created\u00a0role of head of professional standards and Dr Ed Young as chief technology officer (CTO). It also\u00a0restructured its senior leadership team<\/a> in March with the appointment of Matthew Fogarty as executive general manager for strategic relationships and Hayley Briggs as chief financial and operating officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n The funds will be used to help\u00a0Infocus\u00a0to prioritise enhancing platform capability, accelerating technology investment, expanding adviser support\u00a0service\u00a0and strengthening\u00a0the long-term resilience and independence of the broader\u00a0Infocus ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n Founder and managing partner of Scarcity, Adrian Whittingham, said:\u00a0\u201cInfocus\u00a0has built something genuinely differentiated. It is a founder-led business with deep adviser relationships, award winning technology and a three-decade\u00a0track record\u00a0of backing independent advice.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur investment is a long-term commitment to ensuring\u00a0Infocus\u00a0has the capital and strategic support to keep investing in its advisers and to remain one of the defining players in independently aligned advice in Australia.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Scarcity Partners has previously backed companies such as private equity firm Black Kite Partners, specialist mining finance manager Benwerrin Investment Partners and private credit firm Privity Credit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Infocus\u00a0has received a minority investment from Scarcity Partners, a specialist growth investor in investment managers.\u00a0 Scarcity Partners said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,206528,4176,23172,206529,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-605909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-darren-steinhardt","tag-finance","tag-financial-advice","tag-infocus","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}