Two Investment Technology Companies Cooperate to Democratize Access to Corporate Management Teams in Frontier and Emerging Markets
When the MSCI Emerging Markets Index was first launched in 1988, the entire market capitalization of the 10-country index was US$35 billion, equivalent to less than 1% of the world’s total equity market value.
Today, less than 30 years later, that index has grown to include 24 countries and its market capitalization now rests at over US$4 trillion, or approximately 10% of global market capitalization.
With index providers currently consulting on the potential reclassification of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Argentina to emerging markets, the coming years are expected to see an exceptionally large expansion.
Despite the increasing interest in these markets, most of the relevant research and data is most easily available to the largest financial institutions, and remains cost-prohibitive for smaller investors.
But recently the investment research and analysis industry, like many other elements of the traditional banking business model, has found itself under increasing pressure from rapid innovation in financial technology, or ‘FinTech’. The ongoing disruption and changing regulations are leveling the playing field to create new opportunities for companies that are able to efficiently address segments using technology.
One of the leading companies disrupting the model for delivery of data on emerging markets investment strategy is event-driven investment intelligence firm Frontera.
Frontera’s team of experienced emerging markets researchers and analysts provide daily support to asset managers, hedge funds, individual investors, and the broader global business community. Frontera covers capital markets and political risk analysis in over 100 countries within Frontera PRO, its premium research service.
Frontera also provides its premium clients with access to a number of technology-driven integrations to further enhance the platform’s capabilities. Today Frontera is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Closir, a digital investor relations and corporate access platform based in London.
Closir’s innovative platform helps buy-side institutional investors to organize face-to-face management meetings, conference calls and bespoke investment trips with emerging markets companies that fall outside of mainstream broker coverage, effectively automating what has traditionally been a grueling process for market participants.
The new partnership between the two companies will provide Frontera clients with full access to Closir’s automated digital investor relations technology.
According to Frontera, equity research on companies that are not typically covered in mainstream sell-side research are in high demand amongst Frontera PRO subscribers. The partnership with Closir enables Frontera clients to build their own coverage map and directly request calls and meetings with publicly listed companies of any size in frontier and emerging markets.
“Frontera’s mission is to become the emerging markets investor’s most valuable information resource. Our partnership with Closir provides yet another useful service that helps our clients to better analyze the opportunities in our coverage universe,” said Kevin Virgil, Co-founder and CEO of Frontera.
“We’re looking forward to working with Closir,” said Tyler Cicirello, Co-founder and COO at Frontera. “Both companies have an intense commitment to support the global finance and investment industry that we serve and we’re excited to grow together.”
“We believe emerging and frontier markets present significant investment opportunities and are leveraging technology to make a global investor feel local, anywhere. We look forward to working with Frontera to empower global investors as traditional business models are challenged by structural changes,” said Michael Chojnacki, founder and CEO of Closir.
As two leading next-generation investment technology companies, Closir and Frontera are unified by a common mission to democratize emerging markets investing, and help both institutional and individual investors gain full access to under-represented capital markets.
