Validus Secures $45 Million Growth Equity Investment
from FTV Capital

Investment will support new product development, go-to-market acceleration and geographic expansion, strengthening Validus’ position as a leading software and tech-enabled platform for private markets risk management.

LONDON – Validus Risk Management (“Validus”), a leading software and tech-enabled services platform for financial risk management, today announced that it has secured a $45 million growth equity investment from FTV Capital, a sector-focused growth equity firm with a successful track record of investing in enterprise and financial technology. The minority investment will enable Validus to accelerate its go-to-market efforts, further expand into the United States and APAC while continuing to penetrate the European market, and invest in technology and product innovation.

The global market for alternative assets has grown at an approximately 12% CAGR for the last decade to over $13 trillion of assets under management in 2024. As private markets evolve and become more complex, investment firms increasingly demand specialized technology and services to manage market risks, optimize internal processes and seek operational efficiencies. Combining award-winning technology, expert resources and a deep understanding of private markets, Validus delivers innovative software and tech-enabled solutions to fund managers across private debt, private equity, secondaries, infrastructure and real estate. Validus serves over 750 funds globally whose managers have $3.2 trillion in combined assets under management, and the company has consistently demonstrated profitability, with significant year-on-year recurring revenue growth.

Commenting on the investment, Kevin Lester, co-founder and chief executive officer at Validus, said, “For the past 15 years, our relentless commitment to excellence has been the foundation of our success. We are proud to serve some of the world’s largest private capital managers, while maintaining a culture that never stands still. Innovation drives us—whether through designing customized hedging strategies or developing technology that streamlines operations, mitigates risk, and enhances efficiency for our clients. With the backing of FTV Capital, we are poised to scale faster and deliver even greater value to our growing client base.”

“The global alternative asset industry is massive and growing, yet risk management has been largely overlooked,” said Mike Cichowski, partner at FTV Capital. “Validus fills this gap in the market, delivering a comprehensive platform and innovative technology solutions that not only address risk management but also drive operational efficiencies in the middle-office. Validus has demonstrated its success and potential, consistently growing market share profitably and proving itself as the solution of choice for many of the world’s leading private capital firms. We’re thrilled to lead this investment and look forward to partnering with Kevin and the Validus team to accelerate the company’s growth.”

Haakon Blakstad, chief commercial officer at Validus, added, “In addition to FTV’s track record in financial services and technology, we were impressed with their understanding of our particular sector and enthusiasm for the opportunities that lie ahead. Our partnership is about far more than capital; we believe that the strategic support, operating resources and network that FTV will provide are worth many times more than the investment itself.”

As part of this investment, Cichowski will join the Validus board of directors. Walter Global Asset Management will remain on the board as a minority shareholder.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

About Validus Risk Management

Founded in 2010, Validus Risk Management is an independent technology-enabled financial services firm specializing in managing market risks such as FX and interest rates, as well as arranging and managing fund finance facilities. With industry-leading analytical tools, market expertise and proprietary technology, Validus manages over $500 billion in market risk exposure for some of the largest institutional investors, fund managers and corporations across the globe. www.validusrm.com 

About FTV Capital

FTV Capital is a sector-focused growth equity investment firm that has raised more than $10.2 billion to invest in innovative, high-growth companies across two sectors: enterprise technology and services and financial technology and services. Founded in 1998, FTV has developed a highly differentiated and disciplined growth equity model, which leverages the firm’s deep domain expertise and thematic investing approach to help portfolio companies accelerate growth. Since its inception, FTV has invested in over 140 portfolio companies, including Derivative Path, Edgewater Markets, Masttro, True Potential and Zema Global, and successfully exited/partially exited Apex Fund Services (acquired by Genstar), Centaur (acquired by Waystone Group), Enfusion (acquired by Clearwater Analytics) and Strata Fund Solutions (acquired by Alter Domus). FTV also provides companies with access to its Global Partner Network®, a strategic group of more than 600 executives from many of the world’s leading financial services firms and FTV Propel®, an in-house team of seasoned operational leaders who deliver counsel and resources across a range of critical business functions. For more information, please visit www.ftvcapital.com and follow the firm on LinkedIn.