eFront was founded in 1999 as a technology platform aiming to quickly and efficiently develop vertical enterprise software applications.
Over 20 years, eFront has grown from an entrepreneur’s dream to become the leading software provider of solutions dedicated to alternative investments. From humble beginnings in Paris to eventual expansion across the globe, eFront has gone on to influence alternative investing in a big way. Our journey has been both exhilarating and challenging, and a lot of fun. This year, we proudly celebrate 20 years of innovation and growth, which would not have been possible without our dedicated employees and valued clients, and look forward to our next chapter as part of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock.
It all started with WebEdge, a development platform that allowed the founding team to rapidly produce various software solutions and jump on new market trends. Although they were able to make products with ease, finding a market niche proved to be a bigger challenge. They explored various options, creating platforms such as FrontSales (a CRM), FrontExpenses (a travel and expense system), and FrontTime (for managing time sheets), however, these products didn’t become the revolutionary solutions the team had been striving for.
Thankfully, eFront soon attracted its first investors, including the French venture capital firm, CDC Innovation. Before long, CDC Innovation asked the team to create software to help them manage their own private portfolios and track their investments more easily. FrontVenture immediately caught the interest of many private investment experts who were seeking a more professional system, and quickly became the company’s most popular product. eFront started to sign more exclusive deals, allowing for further development of FrontVenture.
Experiencing organic company growth, the team realized that FrontVenture was the opportunity they had been searching for and so, in 2003, eFront became solely dedicated to Alternative Investments. From here, eFront started to scale with further geographic expansion, some targeted acquisitions, as well as various innovative product launches.
Twenty years on, eFront has well and truly cemented its place as the leading software provider in the alternative investment market. This success led to eFront’s acquisition by BlackRock in 2019.
Now, as part of the world’s largest asset manager and combined with Aladdin, BlackRock’s leading capital market technology platform, we have gained a strong technology partner that will allow us to innovate faster, while our combined solutions will offer clients a unique whole-portfolio view across asset classes. Together, we will continue to realize our original mission – to make alternatives less alternative.
Our biggest adventure is yet to come.