Ben Davis

Private markets investment firm, FinCap, has announced five investment managers behind their now available Helm portfolio range, providing institutional grade private markets access to wholesale investors and their advisers.

The managers announced to date span a range of distinct private markets asset classes, including private equity, late-stage venture, global infrastructure, flexible private credit, Australian and New Zealand private equity and royalties.

The portfolios, Helm Income and Helm Growth, are the inaugural line-up of portfolios offered on the firm’s newly launched private markets managed accounts platform; the FinCap Platform.

The managers are:

• StepStone Group, a global investments manager with access to the innovation economy through their venture and growth strategy. They offer early access to leading private technology companies.
• Brookfield Infrastructure Income, one of the world’s largest infrastructure owner-operators. Brookfield Infrastructure Income has exposure to data centres, the energy transition, transport, and utilities, generating largely contracted and inflation-linked income.
• T. Rowe Price Oak Hill Advisors Flex Credit, a flexible private credit mandate that moves across the credit spectrum to capture the best risk-adjusted income opportunities, managed by a global credit specialist.
• Roc Summit Private Equity, an Australian PE manager. They provide rare wholesale access to a diversified, secondaries-led book of Australian and New Zealand private equity, the kind of exposure typically locked inside institutional closed-end funds.
• Partners Group Royalties deliver uncorrelated income from music, pharmaceutical, energy and media royalties. Partner Group Royalties offer a return stream that moves independently of equities or traditional credit.

Managers were assessed against a portfolio construction discipline and an evergreen due-diligence framework covering liquidity, valuation integrity, fee alignment and capital dependency.

Every candidate met an independent operational due-diligence review and a structural-risk screen before approval from FinCap’s Investment Committee.

“The field was genuinely competitive, with many funds evaluated for each slot. Inclusion is selective and ongoing, rather than a one-off list. Managers must continue to meet the same standards to retain their place on the platform,” says Ben Davis, head of portfolio and investment solutions at FinCap.

Davis notes that the manager selections, including the five announced, are designed to complement one another across geography, strategy and return driver: global venture capital and AI exposure through StepStone; contracted, inflation-linked infrastructure income from Brookfield; go-anywhere credit income via Oak Hill Advisors; domestic mid-market private equity through Roc Summit; and uncorrelated royalty income from Partners Group.

“The result is diversification by what drives the return, not just by label,” says Davis.

The Helm portfolios are the FinCap Platform’s flagship range of model portfolios and are the ready-built expression of the platform’s manager research: Helm Income is a highly diversified income solution spanning infrastructure, real estate, asset-based lending, royalties, flexible credit and direct lending, constructed to distribute yield. Helm Growth is a private-equity-led portfolio, constructed for capital growth with a secondary income stream.

An integrated portfolio-construction approach is used for the two offerings. Each manager is a selected holding sized to a defined role (a growth engine, an income engine, a diversifier).

Under the bonnet, both are diversified multi-manager portfolios of approximately fifteen private-markets funds, structured across three tiers: a daily-liquid sleeve (listed and daily-priced funds, representing roughly 20–30% of the portfolio) for flexibility and redemption capacity; a core of evergreen private-markets funds dealing monthly and quarterly; and, over time, selected closed-end vehicles for specific exposures.

“The platform does the manager selection, due diligence and ongoing monitoring, and Helm packages the best of that research into two portfolios an adviser can use directly, rather than asking each adviser to assemble private-markets exposure fund by fund. The result is institutional-style private-markets construction, delivered in an advised, wholesale managed account with periodic liquidity and no capital calls,” says Davis.

The Investment Committee ratifies each portfolio and oversees every holding on an ongoing basis, including continuous liquidity classification, governance assessment and formal periodic review, supported by independent research and operational due diligence.

Both Helm portfolios are available as managed accounts through an adviser on the FinCap Platform from A$100,000. The adviser registers and allocates the wholesale client to either Helm Income or Helm Growth. As a managed account, the client holds the underlying funds beneficially, with consolidated reporting and a single point of access.

The Helm cohort represents the inaugural line-up, not the full complement. Additional managers will join over time as they clear the same process.

The broader signal, however, is the kind of platform FinCap is building: a curated set of portfolios beginning with the Helm range and extending to adviser-led and consultant-led portfolios, alongside a curated pipeline of wholesale private-markets opportunities.

“The common thread is purpose: every manager and every deal earns its place by adding something specific to a client portfolio. This is not a shelf where managers pay to list product. It is a deliberately curated, governed set of high-value-add opportunities, built for advised wholesale clients, and the range will broaden on that basis rather than as an open menu,” says Davis.

“The platform reflects broader structural change in the Australian market. Demand from advisers and wholesale clients for diversified, governed access to private markets has outrun traditional routes that require large minimums, capital calls and multi-year lock-ups,” says Davis.

“FinCap’s evergreen fund structures and the managed-account platform now makes institutional-grade private markets practical for advised wholesale clients, with periodic liquidity and professional construction and oversight,” he says.

Scott Bradley, Vice President of Australia and New Zealand at StepStone Group, says they are “pleased to have been one of the first managers selected by FinCap as part of its new Private Markets Managed Account Solutions platform.”

With exposure to global venture capital and growth equity, StepStone’s diversified portfolio is built on early access to the companies defining the innovation economy. Historical examples include SpaceX and Databricks, alongside leading foundational AI companies.

“As demand for private markets continues to build among Australian investors, advisers are increasingly seeking scalable ways to access high-quality private market opportunities. Reliable access, institutional-grade distribution, and thoughtful implementation will be critical to supporting the long-term growth of private markets within wealth portfolios,” says Bradley.

“FinCap’s platform represents an important step forward in helping advisers access private market strategies in a more structured way. We look forward to supporting FinCap and its adviser network as more investors seek the diversification and long-term return potential private markets can offer.”

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Ben Davis

FinCap has launched its managed account platform, bringing institutional grade private markets access to wholesale investors and their advisers for the first time through a structure built around genuine return conviction, a two engine investment architecture and strong governance.

The FinCap Private Markets Platform launches with three managed portfolios spanning private equity, private credit and real assets, anchored by four globally recognised investment managers and supported by a purpose built investment committee, asset allocation research partner and institutional due diligence backbone.

“Private markets portfolio construction has historically been the domain of large institutions with dedicated resources,” says Ben Davis, head of portfolio and investment solutions at FinCap. “What we are building at FinCap changes that. Increased manager specialisation and the rise of evergreen investment structures have broadened access beyond traditional multi-strategy platforms.”

The FinCap Platform portfolios – Helm Income and Helm Growth – are constructed to capture the illiquidity and complexity premium that listed markets cannot reach. Each portfolio holds 10 to 20 funds, with around 15 preferred positions, and applies a 15% single-fund cap. Every manager is gated through institutional grade investment due diligence before any allocation is made.

Davis adds, “FinCap has designed these highly concentrated portfolios to be genuinely complementary to existing public market holdings rather than diluted private markets beta that an adviser could replicate themselves. BCA Research will support us with forward looking capital market assumptions and asset allocation research applied directly to our portfolios.”

BCA Research, a global independent investment research firm, is responsible for the top-down allocation, and bottom up manager selection is anchored by a global manager research partner delivering institutional investment due diligence and operational due diligence backbone that gates every manager appointment.

Both partners were chosen for their global capabilities, positioning the platform to extend into offshore product access and closed-end, capital-call structures from Q3 2026 onwards.

Three investment managers will anchor the Helm portfolios, each appointed through direct partnership.

Christian Ryan, Executive Chair of FinCap, adds “The platform addresses three problems that have historically locked wholesale investors out of private markets at scale: liquidity, technology and governance.”

On liquidity, Helm runs a multi-stage liquidity architecture designed to match the redemption realities of illiquid assets. On technology, the platform is built natively for periodic valuations, capital calls and illiquid redemption windows – not retrofitted from a listed-market infrastructure. On governance, the Investment Committee was designed from day one to support the platform.

“Listed investments account for only a small fraction of global investable assets. The vast majority of opportunities sit within private markets covering private equity, private credit, infrastructure and specialised real estate. These are not niche or emerging categories but have been key components of institutional portfolios for decades. Yet for many investors, and by extension their advisers, access has remained limited.

“A strategic allocation of 10 to 20 per cent to private markets can materially enhance portfolio outcomes without compromising overall flexibility. This is not a radical proposition, but a measured evolution of traditional portfolio construction and one that aligns more closely with how institutional investors have approached asset allocation for years.”

Alongside the managed portfolios, the platform also features FinCap Direct, a bespoke co-investment channel offering platform members access to single-asset opportunities in private equity and real estate.

FinCap was founded by Ryan and is backed by a strategic investment from Pinnacle Investment Management Group Limited, one of Australia’s leading multi-boutique investment managers.

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Christian Ryan

FinCap Private Markets Platform has unveiled FinCap Direct, a bespoke co-investment offering that will sit alongside its managed portfolio solutions when the platform launches next month, giving financial advisers, family offices and sophisticated investors direct access to institutional grade private markets opportunities.

FinCap Direct will operate as a curated deal-flow pipeline within the platform. When one of FinCap’s global or domestic institutional investment partners identifies a high quality opportunity – whether a single-asset real estate raising, a pre-IPO technology stake or a specialist closed-ended vehicle – the FinCap Investment Committee will conduct its own due diligence before offering it exclusively to platform members.

Each offer will open and close on specified dates, with capital deployed directly into the underlying asset, giving members a defined investment window and direct ownership of a single opportunity.

“The direct channel has been designed to deliver something meaningfully different from a traditional managed fund. Rather than owning a fund with 50 positions, investors will own that asset directly,” Christian Ryan, chair of FinCap, says.

Ryan says demand from advisers and their clients for access to one-off co-investment opportunities has been building strongly. “This is not a wish list. This will be available in the second half of 2026.”

“We also see FinCap Direct as an entry point for new investors. Some investors will take the one off opportunities first, get comfortable with the platform, and then allocate capital into the managed account solution in the future.”

Initial offerings are expected to span two primary asset classes – private equity and real estate – sourced from FinCap’s roster of global and Australian investment asset managers.

On the private equity side, Ryan points to Fincap working closely with one of its private investment manager partners – Potentum Partners, founded by Steve Byrom and David Simons, who previously headed up the private equity strategies and mandates for the Future Fund.

Potentum have provided investors access to global small to mid sized businesses in global technology and other high growth companies. Exposure to these types of investments has historically been the preserve of sovereign wealth funds and endowments. “You own that company directly, privately,” says Ryan. “That is a very different proposition.”

On the real estate front, Ryan highlights the partnership with MA Financial as an example of the differentiated deal flow FinCap Direct is designed to deliver. The partnership has focused on a specialised strategy owning and operating school camps on the east coast of Australia. This partnership allows investors to own a specific portfolio of real estate assets rather than a more diversified fund of alternative real estate properties.

FinCap Direct will be fully integrated into the platform from day one.

“FinCap is really the combination of the managed account offer and our direct offer,” Ryan adds. “Together, they will provide clients and advisers the flexibility to pick and choose how they want to engage with private markets.”

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The committee will provide independent governance and oversight of the asset allocation, portfolio construction and fund selection processes underpinning the FinCap Platform, which is designed to give financial advisers and wholesale investors diversified exposure to private markets including private equity, private credit and real assets.

Bradley and Wright will be joined on the committee by Christian Ryan, Chair of FinCap, and Ben Davis, Head of FinCap’s Portfolio & Investment Solutions.

Bradley brings more than 25 years of experience across investment management, asset consulting and financial services governance. She has held senior roles at several leading Australian investment firms, with deep expertise in portfolio construction, manager research and investment governance frameworks.

Wright co-founded Zenith Investment Partners and spent more than two decades as its CEO, building the firm into one of Australia’s leading investment research and ratings houses. Wright is now Head of Client Solutions at Pinnacle Investment Management and brings more than 30 years of experience across investment research, manager evaluation and consulting to the Committee.

“Having an independent Chair with Leanne’s calibre and experience, alongside David’s deep expertise in investment research and manager evaluation, gives us a Committee with genuine substance,” Ryan says. “As we prepare to bring the FinCap Platform to market, we wanted a governance framework that reflects how institutional investors think about oversight, accountability and rigour.”

“Leanne’s background in investment governance and portfolio construction makes her ideally suited to chair the Committee, and David’s track record at Zenith speaks for itself. Their independence and combined depth of experience will be invaluable as we scale the platform.”

The establishment of the Investment Committee follows FinCap’s appointment of BCA Research as a strategic research partner, announced in April. BCA’s Private Markets and Alternatives division will support the development of asset allocation and portfolio construction frameworks for the platform.

The FinCap Platform targets wholesale investors across Australia and aims to deliver scalable portfolio solutions, giving advisers and asset consultants access to professionally managed private asset exposures backed by institutional-grade governance and reporting.

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Ben Davis

FinCap Group Holdings has appointed BCA Research as a strategic research partner as it prepares to launch its new managed account platform targeting asset consultants, advisers and their wholesale clients.

The partnership, executed through FinCap’s wholly owned subsidiary FinCap PAMA Pty Ltd, will see BCA Research support the development of asset allocation and portfolio construction frameworks for the forthcoming FinCap Platform. The platform is designed to provide diversified exposure to private markets, including private equity, private credit and real assets.

BCA Research, a global independent investment research firm, brings deep expertise in macro strategy and alternatives. Its Private Markets and Alternatives division advises institutional investors on capital market assumptions, asset allocation and portfolio construction.

At FinCap, Head of Portfolio and Investment Solutions Ben Davis will work closely with BCA to integrate these frameworks into the platform’s managed portfolios. The engagement will be led on BCA’s side by Brian Payne, Chief Strategist for Private Markets & Alternatives.

The FinCap Platform aims to replicate institutional best practice by clearly separating asset allocation from fund selection. While fund level due diligence will be conducted independently, BCA’s role will focus on anchoring the strategic and dynamic asset allocation process.

The specialised knowledge provided by the research firm across private market and alternative investments will be used to inform FinCap’s Investment Committee in making strategic and dynamic asset allocation decisions.

According to Davis, the evolution of private markets has created a more sophisticated investment environment, particularly for advised wholesale investors.

“Private markets portfolio construction has historically been the domain of large institutions with dedicated resources,” he says. “What we’re building at FinCap changes that. Increased manager specialisation and the rise of evergreen investment structures have broadened access beyond traditional multi-strategy platforms.”

“Strategic and dynamic asset allocation has become a genuine decision, not just a by-product of access. BCA will support us with forward looking capital market assumptions and asset allocation research applied directly to our portfolios.”

The platform is scheduled to launch in June 2026 and will target wholesale investors across Australia. It aims to deliver scalable portfolio solutions, enabling advisers and asset consultants to access professionally managed private asset exposures backed by institutional-grade governance and reporting.

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This appointment supports the continued build out of our Private Asset Managed Account platform, with a focus on institutional standard portfolio construction, governance and implementation. In the role, Ben will lead portfolio and investment solutions across the platform, supporting advisers and sophisticated investors to access high quality private market opportunities.

Ben brings more than 25 years of experience across investment research, consulting and portfolio solutions in the Australian wealth and advice market. He spent more than two decades at Zenith Investment Partners, where he was a Managing Partner and Equity Owner, and held senior leadership roles across investment research and consulting, including a dedicated focus on private markets.

Ben joins Michelle Woodburn, recently appointed to head Client Partnerships, who had previously helped design and grow the BT Panorama managed accounts platform. Together, they will build out FinCap’s PAMA capability across investment solutions and distribution as the platform scales.

The appointments follow Pinnacle Investment Management’s strategic investment in FinCap last July to support the launch and growth of the platform.

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Christian Ryan

FinCap Group Holdings (“FinCap”) has announced it has secured a strategic investment from Pinnacle Investment Management Group Limited (“Pinnacle”) to support the launch of a first-of-its-kind private managed accounts platform for Australian advisers and their wholesale clients.

The platform is designed to offer wholesale and professional investors institutional-quality access to private market investments, including private equity, private credit and real assets, through a managed account structure. This model combines the transparency and control of traditional managed accounts with the depth and diversification of private markets.

The technology powering the platform is based on OpenInvest’s established infrastructure used across the retail advice, stockbroking and asset management sectors and is being adapted by FinCap to meet the more complex demands of private market investing, including liquidity management, portfolio construction and institutional-grade reporting. OpenInvest is a third-party investment platform provider backed by several investors, including Pinnacle.

Private managed accounts are emerging as a high-growth segment as advisers, consultants, and research houses seek scalable, compliant access to alternatives. Globally, institutions and private wealth groups alike are demanding simplified ways to allocate to private assets without sacrificing governance or customisation. FinCap’s platform is designed to meet that demand – particularly in a market where highnet-worth investors still allocate only a fraction of their portfolios to private markets.

FinCap Founder and Chairman Christian Ryan commented: “For over two decades, I’ve worked with advisers and investors seeking access to high-quality private market opportunities – without the friction of traditional fund structures. This platform reflects that demand. It combines deep private markets expertise, fit-for-purpose scalable technology, and a structure that resonates with advisers. Pinnacle’s backing gives us the capability and confidence to lead in this segment.”

Ian Macoun, Founder and Managing Director of Pinnacle commented: “The managed accounts segment – particularly in private markets – is still nascent in Australia. However, the pace of tech innovation in this area is accelerating and it will soon play a fundamentally important role in helping advisers deliver scalable, customised private market exposure, through structures that better align with client needs.

“FinCap brings deep experience and a clear strategic vision to this opportunity, so we’re proud to support the launch of the managed accounts platform, and to back a solution we see as becoming increasingly important in delivering high quality private market investment capabilities to a broader set of investors.”

FinCap’s platform is designed to support a range of engagement models – spanning FinCap-branded offerings, white-label solutions, and bespoke implementations guided by research consultants and advisors. With growing interest from asset consultants and model portfolio providers in private market access, the FinCap platform will offer a scalable solution for intermediaries seeking to deliver institutional-grade private investments within a managed account framework.

The new managed accounts platform builds on FinCap’s established presence in private capital markets. Initial rollout will prioritise advisers, research houses, and intermediated private wealth groups seeking scalable, compliant access to alternative investments.

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