Unlocking efficiency in LPs onboarding: Life Extension Ventures’ innovation with Talenta

Meet Life Extension Ventures and Talenta

New York-based Life Extension Ventures is a new $100 million fund focused on investing in “longevity for people and planet”. In practice, that means backing founders who are building AI and software solutions to accelerate science around longevity. The fund has an experienced advisory team led by scientists-turned-entrepreneurs-turned-tech investors Iñaki Berenguer (CoverWallet, Contactive, Pixable, etc.) and Amol Sarva (CornerUp, Ratio21, Popular Change, etc.).

The fund is managed by Talenta, a Barcelona-based financial services and wealth management firm with over €800 million in assets, and its goal is to protect and grow their clients’ wealth. Talenta pursues excellence and expertise in its services by constantly evaluating and improving its management model through rigorous processes.

The challenge: Complying with regulations governing investments in VC funds without despairing

Raising private capital for the incorporation of an investment fund is a highly regulated process. Interested investors must comply with numerous legal requirements regarding securities protocols, as well as anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. These requirements are taken very seriously by both U.S. and Spanish authorities and entail a lot of paperwork and documentation.

Despite the capital committed, as in any other private equity vehicles, the funds from the LPs will be invested upon request of Life Extension Ventures, which started last year with about €1.8 million. Talenta was entrusted to manage the whole process around all capital calls.

Leading this crucial task was Adrià Leira, Talenta's Director of Alternative Investments-Venture Capital. His role is to help their clients monitor and manage their investments lifecycle and facilitate the structuring of investment vehicles.

This is a challenging and rewarding job that requires constant learning and innovation. However, it also involves navigating a complex web of stringent regulations and investors’ interests.

Consequently, throughout the incorporation and initial fundraising of Life Extension Ventures, Talenta had to grapple with a multitude of tedious and time-consuming administrative tasks, which include collecting essential information from the investors to comply with the securities laws and the Know Your Customer (KYC) from the AML regulations.

Talenta used to handle this process manually, using email and attachments, Word documents, PDF questionnaires, and even mail. This was a major pain point for Adrià and his team, who had to deal with paperwork overload and inefficiencies whenever a new LP came on board.

Moreover, this process was also a headache for the investors themselves, who felt frustrated and overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork they had to fill out and send back.

When this new project crossed his path, Adrià knew he needed to simplify this process for his team and the future LPs.

“For large volumes of new investors, it was unmanageable. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t an easier way to handle the paperwork and emails involved in onboarding new investors. That’s when I found Parallel.” – Adrià Leira, Director of Alternative Investments-Venture Capital.

The solution: From paperwork to online automation in no time

It was clear to Adrià from the start that Parallel would help him gain greater control over the regulatory onboarding of new investors, freeing up Talenta’s time for more strategic and valuable tasks.

Also, when he shared his decision with the fund’s advisory team, Amalia, CFO of Life Extension Ventures, rapidly realized how Parallel could help him digitize and fully automate LPs onboarding.

Life Extension Ventures is a fund that embraces innovation. In fact, Sarva highlights “workflows: using software to make things that used to take a long time happen faster” as one of their core values.

“We are committed to innovative SaaS solutions. We saw how Parallel solved a problem that affected the fund’s operations –endless email threads, paperwork, inefficient documentation exchange– and we liked it.” – Amalia Formoso, CFO of Life Extension Ventures.

Encouraged by the advisory team’s good reaction, Adrià decided to try it out on the spot.

Talenta shared all the documents and emails they used for each LP with Parallel’s customer success team. Within a few days, they set up the process on the platform, and after some fine-tuning Talenta was ready to use it. In just 2 weeks, they fully implemented it and started onboarding the first Life Extension Ventures investors with Parallel.

“We were surprised by how much Parallel automated for us. It not only made easier the information exchange, document creation, and signing, but also calculated the scoring of each investor. We don't make mistakes by manually reviewing and entering everything data into an Excel file anymore.” – Adrià Leira, Director of Alternative Investments-Venture Capital.

This also helped Talenta manage the investors’ risk, as they could see the scoring of each LP in real-time.

The LPs also appreciated Talenta and Life Extension Ventures’ effort to make the paperwork easier for them. They felt more confident and satisfied with their investment decision.

The benefits: Saving time and building trust with LPs

Thanks to Parallel, Life Extension Ventures fund has transformed its investment onboarding and subscription process for the LPs, and Talenta has improved the control and efficiency of this process. A win-win for everyone.

Here are some of the results they achieved with Parallel:

Talenta has speeded up the LP onboarding process 4x.

“Before, it could take us up to 3 or 4 weeks to get all the paperwork completed and signed, from the first email to the last. With Parallel, there are some LPs who have completed the process in only 10 minutes. Also, we have increased the internal efficiency of the team, who can easily monitor, review, and forget about following up.” –A drià Leira, Director of Alternative Investments-Venture Capital.

Now, the whole process takes 7 days on average.

Improving LPs experience

“We have also improved the experience for the LPs, who respond faster, make fewer mistakes, and have fewer questions. Before, I had to send many documents back because there were mistakes or it was not what we needed. I also spent weeks claiming certain information. This was one of the main sources of friction with the investor.” – Adrià Leira, Director of Alternative Investments-Venture Capital.

Thanks to Parallel, Talenta has more control, more efficiency, and less friction.

Life Extension Ventures fund also received positive feedback from their LPs, who gained visibility over the investment and KYC process and felt comfortable with their customized client portal.

“Talenta’s initiative to constantly improve its processes has allowed the fund to start building strong trust relationships with LPs from the beginning.” – Amalia Formoso, CFO of Life Extension Ventures.

Ready to scale to the moon

After seeing the transformation of this process, Talenta plans to implement Parallel not only in all alternative investments or venture capital but also in other financial and investment services where AML and securities market regulation are also strict.

With Parallel, Talenta can streamline information exchange, automate legal documents, and improve their clients' experience.