Fintech Consultancy Intention.ly Buys C-Suite Social Media: Tech Roundup  

Growth engine design consultancy firm Intention.ly acquired C-Suite Social Media, an all-in-one digital marketing and social media agency supporting the financial services sector.

Combined, Intention.ly and C-Suite Social Media “will bring a markedly enhanced experience to their current and prospective client bases,” Intention.ly said Monday in a news release.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

With the purchase, Intention.ly is adding C-Suite Social Media CEO Tina Powell’s “significant industry expertise, high-performance mindset and visionary marketing approach to the Intention.ly leadership team,” according to Intention.ly.

The addition of Powell “will enable the combined firm to drive accelerated growth for some of the most sophisticated and innovative businesses across the financial services and financial technology industries,” Intention.ly added.

Through the transaction, Powell will become Intention.ly’s chief growth officer and a partner.

“The synergy between our firms is electric,” according to Kelly Waltrich, Intention.ly CEO and co-founder.

“Combining our teams furthers our ability to turn marketing into a key revenue driver for the firms we serve,” Waltrich said in a statement. “It also opens new avenues for tremendous innovation and creativity, including influencer marketing opportunities, podcast and video production services, social media engagement and more.”

Powell said she’s known Waltrich and Meghan Richter, Intention.ly co-founder and president, for 10 years. “Intention.ly’s vision for transforming the role of marketing in the financial services space aligns perfectly with what we’ve been working toward at C-Suite since 2017,” according to Powell.

Since launching last year, Intention.ly has grown its team to include 20 employees across seven states, and it now serves 35 clients across the financial services ecosystem, including fintech firms, turnkey asset management platforms (TAMPs), RIAs, broker-dealers, consultants and wealth managers.

SEI Expands Canoe Intelligence Pact

SEI expanded its strategic partnership with Canoe Intelligence, a fintech firm powering alternative investment intelligence, the companies said in a joint announcement on Monday.

The expanded pact was designed to “automate and bring new efficiencies to the alternative investment document and data workflows within SEI’s Archway Platform,” the firms said.

The Archway Platform is delivered by SEI Family Office Services, a provider of technology and technology-enabled service offerings to family offices, financial institutions and the ultra-high-net-worth clients they serve.

“SEI Family Office Services will leverage Canoe’s industry-leading alternatives document collection and data extraction technologies for their outsourced service clients, enhancing SEI Family Office Services’ ability to scale its operations and deliver exceptional value to their end-clients who invest in alternative assets,” the companies said.

Since 2020, the firms have worked together to deliver alternative investment data more accurately and efficiently from Canoe to the Archway Platform for mutual clients.

That integration has “empowered users of both systems to seamlessly input, track, and report on alternative investment data as a part of their holistic wealth picture,” they said.

Great Valley Advisor Group Selects Pontera

Great Valley Advisor Group, a technology-driven, full-service hybrid RIA, announced Monday that it partnered with fintech firm Pontera to allow advisors to manage and trade their clients’ retirement assets across all accounts, including held-away assets including 401(k)s and 403(b)s.

Advisors can affiliate with GVA by joining the RIA, using its office of supervisory jurisdiction (OSJ), or through a hybrid model, it noted.

GVA’s recent acquisitions, U.S. Financial Advisors and Gaines Financial Group, have built upon its growing advisor network that it says now includes 40 offices across the U.S. with a total of 135 advisors, collectively managing over $6 billion in assets across its advisory and brokerage businesses.

GVA’s advisors can use Pontera’s platform to securely manage, view, report, supervise and bill on 401(k), 403(b) and other held away accounts in a compliant manner, the hybrid RIA said.

Pontera’s technology provides GVA advisors with a “more complete picture of a client’s financial situation, as well as the ability to own the execution of investment strategies, ensuring a more coordinated asset management strategy,” according to GVA.

(Pictured: Kelly Waltrich, CEO and co-founder of Intention.ly, left, and C-Suite Social Media CEO Tina Powell.)