Investment analytics company Aumni Inc., a portfolio company of venture capital firm Moneta Ventures, is being acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Moneta led the first seed round of institutional investment into Aumni in 2018, the year it was founded in an office upstairs from Moneta's Folsom headquarters.
"We're thrilled to see this collaboration come to fruition as J.P. Morgan first invested in Aumni in 2021 and quickly realized shared synergies of providing more transparency to the private markets," said Michael Elanjian, head of digital investment banking and digital private markets with JPMorgan, in a news release. "Aumni’s market-leading data structuring and portfolio monitoring solutions … further enhances the ecosystem of digital solutions that J.P. Morgan is building for companies and investors in both growth and later-stage private markets."
New York-based JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) didn't disclose the value of the transaction, which is expected to close in the first half of this year.
Now based in Salt Lake City, Aumni developed proprietary data analytics software that analyzes, structures and tracks essential legal and economic terms underpinning growth-stage private-market transactions. Its analytics engine uses artificial intelligence to extract deal data in dense legal agreements.
Aumni has more than 350 employees, JPMorgan said.
Aumni has a client base of more than 300 institutions using its software, which has evaluated over $600 billion in invested capital across 17,000 private companies.
"Moneta Ventures is among the best early-stage investors, business advisers and coaches I've ever worked with," said Kelsey Chase, co-founder of Aumni, in a LinkedIn post. "As our first outside board member and a prior operator, Lokesh Sikaria has ingrained amazing principals and business practices into growing Aumni over the years."
Aumni CEO Tony Lewis said in a LinkedIn post that Moneta was "willing to roll up the sleeves and really help us build. … Moneta was the ideal investor for us in our first institutional round."
Over the years, Aumni raised total funding rounds of $63 million, according to tracking site Crunchbase.
Moneta launched its first fund in 2014 with $25 million to invest. In 2016, it launched its second fund, with $60 million to invest.
Moneta has grown to have $300 million in assets under management at the end of last year. It is currently raising a third fund.
The Aumni investment was made in Moneta's second fund, said Lokesh Sikaria, managing partner of Moneta.
Sikaria was the first outside board member of Aumni when it made its investment in 2018. He transitioned to board observer when JPMorgan made its investment in 2021.
Moneta was also one of Aumni's first customers, Sikaria said. "It made sense, we wanted to give them feedback."
Moneta still uses the Aumni software, he said.
