Having played a key role in shaping social networks and transforming how people interact, Eduardo Saverin wants to exert the same influence on the investment market, combining the established work of asset managers with the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI).
B Capital – a venture capital firm led by Facebook co-founder Raj Ganguly, the world's richest Brazilian with an estimated fortune of US$33.5 billion, and former Bain Capital investor Raj Ganguly – led a consortium of investors, including the California state employees' pension fund, to acquire the investment management firm Russell Investments, according to Bloomberg news agency.
The financial terms of the transaction, announced on Thursday, July 9th, were not disclosed. However, the deal is estimated to be worth approximately US$2.8 billion.
Founded in 1936, Russell Investments had been controlled since 2016 by private equity firms TA Associates Management and Reverence Capital Partners, which took the company private for US$1.15 billion. At the time, the company had approximately US$270 billion in assets under management.
Currently, Russell has $416 billion under management and has reported organic growth of 15% in recent years.
Now, under the management of B Capital and its partners, the idea is to expand the company's technological scale. In the statement announcing the agreement, the consortium indicated its intention to invest in infrastructure to allow for greater customization and enhance the asset manager's analytical capabilities.
“As global investors in transformative technologies, we firmly believe that the future of asset management lies at the intersection of specialized investment knowledge, personalized client service, and innovation,” said Eduardo Saverin and Raj Ganguly, co-founders and co-CEOs of B Capital, in a statement.
Ganguly went further and stated that the goal is to use AI to expand Russell's capabilities and improve the investor experience by creating more customized portfolios.
According to him, the proposal is to combine Russell's expertise in customer service and its portfolio of clients and products with technology. Therefore, Saverin's partner stated, B Capital decided to acquire a consolidated asset management firm instead of investing in a technology startup focused on the financial market. "You can't remove the human element [from investments]," he said.
B Capital's investment in Russell represents almost an "outlier" in the firm's history. Founded by Saverin and Ganguly in 2015, and now with US$12 billion in assets under management, B Capital focuses on early-stage and growth/late-stage companies, while Russell will celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2026.
The acquisition comes at a time when the investment market is beginning to discuss ways to incorporate AI and automation into decision-making processes and work routines.
Technology is already shaping investors' decision-making process. A study produced by BridgeWise earlier this year and shared exclusively with NeoFeed showed that 78.3% of respondents use AI to answer investment-related questions, at different levels of use.
Furthermore, 65.1% of these individuals, spread across 19 countries, stated that they intend to replace traditional investment research with AI tools next year.
