Jefferson River Capital leads a $5.4 million seed fund round

Alto, a tech platform that streamlines the addition of alternative assets to IRAs, raised a seed fund round. The family office of Tony James, Executive Vice Chairman of Blackstone, led the $5.4 million fund. Moment Ventures, a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm, also took part in the funding.

Other seed-round investors were Foundation Capital, Sequoia’s Scout Fund, and Amplify.LA.

Jefferson: Americans should rethink how they invest for retirement

Tony James is concerned that a growing number of Americans have inadequate savings for retirement.

“The existing 401(k) and IRA system require Administrators to offer predominantly short-term, liquid investments, a structural bias that leads to subpar returns in comparison to pension funds and endowments invested in longer-term, less liquid alternatives,” said David Wittels, President of Jefferson River Capital.

The Jefferson River Capital family office invested in Alto to help make it easy for any saver with a retirement account to invest in alternative assets.

The Alternative IRA™ from Alto

The Alternative IRA is an individual retirement account that allows savers to easily invest in alternative assets such as startups, private equity, and VC funds, real estate, marketplace loans, and digital currencies.

Benefits of alternatives on Alto

The company says its benefits include above-market returns and the addition of non-correlated assets to the portfolio. It also cited enhanced returns through the tax advantages of an IRA and the alignment with the long-term nature of the typical IRA account.