Morgan Stanley's 1GT Invests in AI-Focused Analytics Startup: Tech Roundup

What You Need to Know

Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s 1GT climate private equity strategy co-led a $50 million Series B funding round for tech startup Everstream Analytics.
Advisors can now directly pull data from Orion’s Redtail platform to streamline operations and deliver improved client experience as part of integration with Flourish.
UBS participated in the launch of the next phase in the rollout of Broadridge’s blockchain-enabled Distributed Ledger Repo platform.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) said Tuesday its 1GT climate private equity strategy co-led a $50 million Series B funding round for technology startup Everstream Analytics, along with existing investors StepStone Group and Columbia Capital.

The Morgan Stanley division didn’t specify how much of the $50 million it contributed on its own. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Everstream says it applies artificial intelligence to procurement, logistics and business continuity platforms to generate accurate predictions, more complete information and sharper analysis and enable businesses to achieve a more autonomous and sustainable supply chain.

The new funding will “drive Everstream’s innovation in both operational risk and environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance to further enhance supply chain sustainability for global brands” including Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific Corp. and Whirlpool, Everstream and Morgan Stanley said in a joint announcement.

“We look to invest exclusively in companies that provide products or services to address time-critical carbon impact issues while meeting fiduciary obligations to their investors,” said Vikram Raju, MSIM head of climate investing and 1GT.

“This funding comes when we are doubling down on our product innovation and executing rapidly and decisively to advance supply chain sustainability, which is more critical now than ever,” added Julie Gerdeman, Everstream CEO.

Part of MSIM’s $200 billion alternative investments business, 1GT is out to make investments in companies that will collectively avoid or remove one gigaton of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) emissions from the Earth’s atmosphere from the date of the platform’s investment through 2050, the date by which the United Nations has mandated “Net Zero” must be achieved, Morgan Stanley noted.

Flourish Integrates With Redtail

The Flourish financial product platform for registered investment advisors integrated with Redtail Technology’s client relationship management software solution for advisors, the companies said in a joint announcement on Tuesday.

The Flourish platform provides access to financial products that help RIAs secure their clients’ financial futures, the firms said.

Flourish now has a direct integration with Redtail that allows RIAs to prefill Flourish application information using data stored in Redtail, the companies noted.

Advisors can also directly pull data from Redtail to “streamline operations and deliver an improved client experience,” the firms said, noting the integration is already live and in use.

“Tens of thousands of advisors leverage Redtail to manage client information and automate marketing,” Redtail noted.