Allocate

We’re building the operating system for modern private market investing, and we're building out our team 🚀 #hiring! Allocate is rethinking how wealth advisors and their partners participate and manage private alternatives. Our platform serves as the operating system designed for today’s more sophisticated, more complex investing environment. If you’re motivated to help modernize how capital flows through private markets, explore our open roles: 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 • Office Manager: https://lnkd.in/guZqrS-7 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 • Marketing Operations Lead: https://lnkd.in/gsVyMZhv 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗹 • Junior Fund Formation Attorney: https://lnkd.in/gYQ-74xt • Senior Fund Formation Attorney: https://lnkd.in/gQa9UuzZ 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 & 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 • Banking Operations Program Manager: https://lnkd.in/grkehF7h • Data Quality Analyst: https://lnkd.in/giNZ5skH • Client Success / Account Manager, Insights: https://lnkd.in/gmPW7C-A • Implementation Specialist: https://lnkd.in/gPB3AnBs • Senior Product Operations, Insights: https://lnkd.in/gjKqQ9JU 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 • Managing Director / Director, Wealth Advisory: https://lnkd.in/gMWn6p74 📍 Explore roles: allocate.co/careers 🤝 We welcome thoughtful conversations — reach out if you want to learn more.

AI, blockchain, and alternative assets are reshaping the foundation of financial services. But beneath the buzzwords are real shifts LPs and GPs must navigate with clarity. On this episode of the Allocate Podcast, Samir Kaji speaks with Matt Harris, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), about how fintech has evolved — from digitizing analog workflows to embedded finance and decentralized infrastructure. They explore the promise and limitations of tokenization in wealth management, what needs to happen before on-chain adoption can scale, and why evergreen fund models are drawing renewed interest from institutions. Matthew also reflects on venture cycles, AI’s pace of adoption relative to past tech waves, and the importance of founder quality — particularly in periods of volatility. For limited partner investors and fund managers re-evaluating models and access, this conversation offers grounded insights from a veteran investor who’s seen multiple market cycles. 🎧 Listen to the full episode at https://lnkd.in/gcU6u8Ze

Each week, Allocate’s Investments Team highlights a resource informing our market perspective. This week, Camila Orozco Gil features a conversation from The Dart Board with Vanessa Larco — founder of Premise VC and former NEA partner — on what defines exceptional early-stage founders, why AI may be creating new tailwinds at the pre-seed and seed stage, and how emerging interfaces are reshaping consumer hardware. A generational setup for early-stage investing Larco draws parallels between today’s AI shift and past platform transitions like broadband and mobile. She suggests this moment may offer one of the more compelling early-stage environments in recent memory, as behavioral change accelerates and incumbents lag behind. New consumer and SaaS categories appear increasingly open to innovation. What sets outlier founders apart Beyond credentials or experience, Larco highlights the rare “magnetism” some founders exhibit — the ability to attract talent, capital, and belief early on. As she puts it, in reference calls this often sounds like: “I don’t even fully understand the product yet, but I’d follow them anywhere.” This early signal, she argues, can compound into durable advantage long before product-market fit. Ambient hardware and the next shift in consumer tech Voice-native, AI-enabled devices are enabling new interfaces that reduce screen time while keeping users connected. Larco points to products like Meta Ray-Bans and the Oura Ring as signs that incumbents, focused on mature categories, may be overlooking a breakout cycle. She believes AI-powered wearables could mark the next wave of consumer adoption as computing becomes more ambient and embedded. Listen to the full episode at https://lnkd.in/grSsgkAW Nic Millikan, CFA, Ben Weintraub

This year, the private markets have been shaped by AI-led investment flows, valuation divergence, and a complex liquidity environment. What does this mean heading into 2026? On January 21, Samir Kaji and Nic Millikan will share their latest observations in Allocate’s annual State of the Market webinar. The discussion will highlight themes we’ve seen across our platform data and dialogues with fund managers, offering context that helps inform long-term decision-making. 🔗 Secure your spot here: https://lnkd.in/gk-_uwsK

The truth about AI and VC today. 1) Raising a VC round right now, unless you are an AI company, is harder than it has ever been. Nearly all investor attention has shifted to AI businesses showing *extreme* revenue acceleration. Raising an A or B without 5-10x growth YoY is unlikely for SaaS companies. 2) Incentives inside the venture reinforce this. Most investors look for signals from downstream investors (who mitigate risk and generate the mark-ups). Easier to invest with the crowd than try and fight gravity. 3) While everyone in VC land generally admits the frothiness and valuations (largely capital supply driven rather than fundamentals), the chance of getting the right company early is so attractive that they are willing participants. This environment is an extreme version of power law in that the winners will inevitably be bigger than anything we've seen, as only a small % of these companies will create real long-term durability. Outside of some late-stage obvious names, however, nobody knows which ones those will be, so the capital piles into companies despite the reality of valuations and competition. 4) Lots of great non-AI businesses risk getting stuck in no man's land, looking to raise at the B stage or later. They have real models, solid fundamentals, and good growth, but they do not stand out relative to AI native companies. At the same time, they do not fit the type of business that private equity investors invest in (cash-burning). This is creating a real funding gap for strong companies that in any other cycle would have been obvious candidates for continued investment.

We’re thrilled to see Peter Epstein, our Managing Director of Relationship Management, featured in InvestmentNews for his perspective on how private markets are reshaping the operating model for modern wealth firms. Peter has spent over a decade working with RIAs to help embed alternative strategies into the core of their portfolios — not as products, but as programs that drive differentiation, personalization, and scale. In this latest feature, Peter speaks candidly about what’s changing: • Why alternatives are no longer “alternative” — they're expected • How fragmented workflows are slowing advisor adoption and exhausting teams • What unified infrastructure makes possible: scalable personalization, normalized data, and AI-powered portfolio design These insights mirror what we’re hearing across our wealth advisor, fund manager, and limited partner investor conversations: that executional lift, visibility gaps, and compliance risks are still the bottlenecks — not demand. Thank you to InvestmentNews and Steve Randall for spotlighting this critical shift! 🔗 Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/dv_s3pM3

We’re excited to unveil the mainstage speakers for Beyond Summit 2026 🔉 Aileen Lee (Cowboy Ventures), Alexis Ohanian Sr. (Seven Seven Six 7️⃣7️⃣6️⃣), and Mamoon Hamid (Kleiner Perkins) will be joining us in May 2026 at Montage Deer Valley in Park City, Utah! Beyond Summit is a focused gathering for institutional LPs, GPs, RIAs, and ecosystem partners who value depth over noise. Join us to hear from some of the most thoughtful investors in private markets and the innovation economy. Through candid dialogue and working sessions, attendees will engage on capital formation, portfolio construction, and how to navigate a shifting private markets landscape with clarity and discipline. Explore the agenda and request an invitation: https://lnkd.in/gZwbw_6m

For Nicolas Szekasy, Cofounder and Managing Partner of KASZEK, investing in Latin America has never been about reacting to headlines. Macroeconomic volatility is part of the landscape. What matters more is identifying enduring technology shifts, and backing the founders positioned to lead them. Since launching in 2011, Kaszek has stayed disciplined in this approach. Their thesis hasn’t changed, even as mobile, cloud, and now AI have reshaped the opportunity set. The core idea: structural tailwinds, not temporary cycles, create the conditions for lasting value. This mindset is especially relevant today, as investors recalibrate their exposure to emerging markets and rethink what resilience looks like in venture. It’s not about avoiding risk, it’s about understanding where durable advantages truly come from. Watch the full Built to Last webinar for more on building long-term edge in venture at https://lnkd.in/gwWQaAdw

Each week, Allocate’s Investments Team highlights a resource informing our market perspective. This week, Ben Weintraub from our Investments Team features a conversation from Alt Goes Mainstream with Michael Sidgmore and Matthew A’Hearn, Head of Digital Infrastructure at Blue Owl Capital, on how AI and cloud adoption are reshaping the physical underpinnings of the internet. Three key takeaways: 1. AI is a wave on top of a wave. Cloud infrastructure was already expanding 20–30% annually, with hyperscalers driving global demand for compute and storage. AI now layers incremental demand on top of that growth, creating what A’Hearn calls a “generational opportunity.” The implications are structural and point to sustained acceleration in capital deployment across data centers, fiber, power, and connectivity. 2. Power is the new bottleneck. For every dollar invested in a data center build, hyperscaler partners typically invest $3–$5 in their own equipment. The limiting factor is no longer capital; it is power. Transmission and generation capacity, local permitting, and skilled-labor constraints have become gating items for deployment speed. A’Hearn emphasizes that a strong ground game in site selection, power procurement, and stakeholder engagement is now essential to disciplined underwriting. 3. Infrastructure with tech-like growth. Blue Owl structures its investments around long-term, mission-critical assets that support hyperscaler operations. These facilities sit senior in the capital stack and carry high-credit tenants, yet the growth profile resembles technology given the secular expansion of cloud and AI workloads. The model offers potential for inflation-protected income and diversification relative to traditional markets, and is increasingly accessible through evergreen and wealth-channel vehicles. Listen to the full episode at: https://lnkd.in/gV5P_K6m Nic Millikan, CFA, Camila Orozco Gil

In venture, access isn’t built in spreadsheets. It’s built in person. Mark Goldberg from Chemistry shared how his team approaches sourcing as a “ground game” — one rooted in time spent with founders, not just deal flow funnels. From research sessions to casual gatherings, every interaction is designed to deepen relationships and stay close to where new ideas begin. For Chemistry, the focus isn’t volume; it’s proximity. The firm invests in the networks that produce tomorrow’s founders — creating authentic touchpoints long before a pitch deck is written. It’s a reminder that in early-stage investing, the edge often comes from showing up, not scaling out. Hear more from Mark and other next-generation managers in "Emerging Managers: Building the Next Generation of Venture Capital" at https://lnkd.in/gX9ZaxnZ