BitFinance adds over 40 years of alternative and cryptocurrency asset management and FinTech experience to its Executive Team

MIAMI, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BitFinance, the technology start-up providing democratized access to institutional grade alternative investments via a proprietary robo-advisor platform, is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Conn to the role of Co-Founder, President, CIO and Board member. The company also announces the appointment of Eli Broverman, Co-Founder of Betterment, as Executive Board Member, and Orion Agarwal as VP of Capital Markets. BitFinance welcomes the addition of these three seasoned finance executives with over 40 years combined experience in FinTech and alternative assets to its management team. The new team members have collectively raised over $300 million in their careers and led organizations managing over $715 billion in AUM.

They join an experienced team of technologists and alternative investment specialists led by Founder and CEO Eli M Blatt, PhD, a Stanford-trained quantitative behavioral scientist and serial entrepreneur with experience building and optimizing online products with 100M monthly active users.

"We're excited Michael is joining our growing team. His years of experience and knowledge in alternative assets and the financial industry, as well as expertise in blockchain and cryptocurrency will be extremely valuable as we launch our own blockchain investment platform," notes Eli M Blatt, Founder and CEO of BitFinance. "Michael's experience and network in the alternative asset and cryptocurrency management space is a huge asset as we seek to Democratize access to alternative investments.   We're all looking forward to working with him." 

Michael has an extensive background in both alternative and cryptocurrency asset management, having served in senior executive roles with a variety of financial institutions, including AllianceBernstein, manager of over half a trillion dollars in AUM, and The TCW Group. More recently, Michael Co-Founded and served as CEO of Ether Capital, the first Ethereum-focused publicly traded company globally, for which he raised $45 million through a private placement.  As President and CIO, Michael will help lead the efforts in the company's upcoming token sales and development of its proprietary alternative asset investment platform and products. 

"I couldn't be more excited to join the BitFinance team as they build this exciting business," said Mr. Conn. "It's extremely rare to have the opportunity to be part of a truly disruptive endeavor that also enhances the public good by expanding access to investment products historically only available to the wealthy. I can't wait to work with this talented team committed to democratizing finance."

Joining Michael Conn on the team is Eli Broverman, Co-Founder of the first-ever FinTech unicorn, Betterment, for which he helped raise over $242 million in venture capital.  Betterment revolutionized retail investment by creating the first web-based "robo-advisor", growing it to a $1 billion valuation while managing over $13 billion in assets from over 300,000 retail investors.  He continues to serve as a Board Member of Betterment. Broverman holds a JD from the New York University School of Law (NYU) and a B.S. from Brown University where he and Eli Blatt, Founder and CEO of BitFinance, were classmates.

Orion Agarwal is a former cryptocurrency investment research analyst at Standpoint Research, where he contributed to research focused on finance and FinTech covering Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Binance (BNB), Zcash (ZEC), and Polymath (POLY), among others. Prior to his time at Standpoint, Orion served as an equity research analyst for $1 billion hedge fund, Dalton Investments, and managed a VC firm with several successful exits including one to Amazon.com. Orion holds an MBA in Finance and Investment Management from the University of Southern California and a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Blatt highlights how excited he is to announce such accomplished new team members, "We're building a world-class team with deep knowledge and upper management experience across a variety of financial services sectors including alternative asset management, cryptocurrency, real estate, lending, and FinTech. Michael brings to our team nearly 20 years of experience as an executive at the world's leading alternative asset management firms. Adding a FinTech visionary like Eli Broverman gives us unparalleled guidance and experience on how to apply the same concepts he used to build Betterment to disrupt the alternative investment marketplace, which is projected to grow to $18.1 trillion by 2020.  Orion adds strong experience in incentivization strategy, cryptocurrency, financial valuation, investment banking, capital markets deal structure and equities. Our team just leveled up exponentially, and I feel extremely confident about our ability to execute on our vision to Democratize Finance by becoming the Wealth Manager for the People"

BitFinance makes investing in alternative assets accessible and easy.  Currently, fewer than 5% of investors worldwide are able to invest in the top alternative asset funds due to regulations, high investment minimums or not having the right financial advisor.  BitFinance gives the over 95% of retail investors that don't have access to top-performing institutional-grade alternative investment funds an opportunity to diversify their investment holdings and build wealth by gaining exposure to this important $15 trillion global asset class.

About BitFinance

BitFinance provides investors a safe and easy way to build a fully-diversified portfolio of institutional-grade alternative investments online via user-friendly online robo-advisor platform.  Investors can invest in a wide range of alternative investments, including cryptocurrency funds, hedge funds, venture capital, private debt, real estate, energy, crypto and private equity via a single investment platform. To get this type of alternative asset diversification, investors would need access to a team of specialized investment managers and millions of dollars to just meet the high investment minimums for alternative asset funds. BitFinance is also the first company to provide margin investment accounts secured against cryptocurrency assets. BitFinance's goal is to become The Wealth Manager for the Peopletm.

SOURCE BitFinance