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May 6, 2022

How PureFacts is looking to revolutionize wealth management for all

3 min read

WealthTech100              FinTech-Global

Established in 2010, PureFacts was a seed that grew from the mind of Robert Madej. The company was formed out of a custom software firm that Robert started in 1997 with one of his brothers. PureFacts provides enterprise wealth management and asset management solutions for many of the world’s leading financial services firms. Their vision is to create meaningful wealth solutions to help people live their best lives.

According to Madej, PureFacts is the dream of his life. Born in Canada, Robert Madej was raised by a hardworking single mother who scrimped and saved to give Madej and his three siblings the best start in life. Along the way, she was a terrific budgeter, prolific saver and smart investor who began investing with a simple RRSP in the mid-1980s.  After reading a book by Gordon Pape she opened her first investment account through a well-known Canadian mutual fund company and she achieved great financial results. Madej stated that today, his mother is happily retired from a successful career in nursing and living on a golf course in San Jose, California. 

He said, “In my own life, I’ve seen the difference that wealth management, saving and solid financial advice can make and what it did for my family. At PureFacts, we are excited about helping other families achieve the same goals.”

The vision for Madej was to create worldwide wealth by providing wealth managers with technology solutions that increase their value proposition to their clients, “The idea was to make wealth management more accessible and increase the value of the advice, so it makes a bigger difference in the lives of more people. Creating wealth for regular people by helping to provide better outcomes for savers and investors creates better opportunities and helps them live their best lives.”

PureFacts develops a number of technology solutions that are aimed at increasing the value of the advice an advisor can provide their own clients. Currently, the firm helps its clients with fee billing and revenue management, client reporting, retirement income planning, goals-based-investing and digital onboarding. The company’s solutions have delivered strong results and helped them build an impressive share of the global market for their products.

 

Key trends

What are the trends in WealthTech that are key to PureFacts and their clients? Two hot-button topics cited by Madej include retirement income planning and ESG.

He remarked, “The reason why retirement income planning is front-and-centre for PureFacts is that Baby Boomers are retiring. The decumulation phase of wealth management is being discussed more and more among our clients. Essentially, our clients – global wealth and asset managers – are thinking about how to deliver the best value to their retiring clients, and how the wave of retirement and inter-generational wealth transfer, can assist them in growing their own businesses. PureFacts’ decumulation solution can help financial planners and advisors quickly deliver effective decumulation plans to their clients and help asset and wealth managers grow their businesses while providing peace of mind to people entering a new phase in their lives.” 

ESG, meanwhile, is a trend that is definitely here to stay. Madej explained, “ESG is changing the world as investors expect companies to generate returns and do it in a way that aligns with their values. There are many good reasons for companies to want to do just that, but Madej believes it will come down to the cost of capital.  Companies able to “show a better ESG score” will have a lower cost of capital leading to faster and more sustained growth.  In short, doing good will be good for business.

 

Funding raise 

Back in December 2021, Pure Facts raised $37m in a funding round. According to Madej, the raise came after a long period of fiscal prudence by the company. He said, “We had been completely bootstrapped up until that point. We were very proud of our track record of being a profitable firm, month after month and year after year.

“The reason why we raised the funds was because we thought we could spur on our growth and also fund an acquisition or two. Our near-term focus is on the US market but we’re also looking at opportunities to grow globally. We’re also looking to expand our sales force and our product and client delivery team around the world.”

“PureFacts is recognised as a leader in fee billing and revenue management in both Canada and Europe and we are making strides in the US market, so we want to continue to push that. But really, our focus is on becoming a global company growing our revenue in all geographies. 

“Part of the reason for the new capital was to invest in our newest technology, and we have a great new reporting platform. We’ve been working a lot on ESG solutions and data aggregation, AI, insights-as-a-service and making sure that all data we have from our various clients around the world, can be used to build a business that provides better services for their own clients.”

 

Plans and goals

What is next for PureFacts? Following the company’s big funding raise, at the end of last year, the company is looking to the future. Madej detailed, “We’re looking forward to a breakthrough year this year. We’re working very hard to roll out our newest technology and we are focused on attracting new clients around the world and finding the right acquisition target. 

What is the ultimate goal for PureFacts? Madej said, “Over the next five years we plan to grow through a mixture of organic and acquisitions. Our target is to grow our global revenue north of $100m, which we believe is achievable. We also see ourselves playing in all the major geographies of the world and being a truly global company. We would love to see wealth management firms get better at servicing their clients and providing a better value proposition and we’d love to see people understanding wealth better, understanding budgeting better, saving money better, investing better and growing wealthier.