Ben Case Study

Beneficient came to Extractable with a unique problem. Historically, investors or small institutions seeking liquidity for an alternative asset have an arduous set of hurdles ahead of them. They might turn to their financial advisor for help, who in turn calls a back office, their colleagues, or even the asset sponsor; scrounging to generate liquidity from the client’s position through any means possible.

This low-tech effort easily spans over half a year. Coupled with a complicated legal process, liquidity seekers are left feeling frustrated and underserved. This is a particular blow to Beneficent’s target market, high-net-worth alternative asset investors, who often seek liquidity in times of duress, or when more profitable time-sensitive opportunities arise.

Beneficient’s novel liquidity model leverages new technology and sophisticated internal modelling to cut through the clutter of the old process — fundamentally creating a market where one does not exist today. The question remained; how will the investor base engage with the new offering?

Extractable and Beneficient partnered to design a digital, self-serve authenticated experience that enables investors and their representatives to engage with the new products. The experience had to maintain the high-touch service design Beneficient investors expect, while shielding them from the complex behind-the-scenes underwriting and risk assessment process; all culminating in a well-priced liquidity offer in as little as three to four weeks.

In order to build the right experience for Beneficent’s unique product, the Extractable team began by laying a foundation rooted in customer-first digital strategy. Across every engagement, we know that creating a leading-class experience begins and ends with the customer. While the project spanned multiple vendors focusing on the internal Appian supported workflows, AWS infrastructure, and REACT based front-end; we maintained that the digital strategy, customer journey, and experience design should dictate those flows. While many financial institutions allow technology to drive their experience, we maintain that the customer should inform the tech stack to harness optimal power from such tools.

Extractable laid the building blocks by conducting thorough user research with internal stakeholders as well as individual HNW holders of alternative assets, RIAs, and Family Offices.

After a thorough discovery and UX research process, Extractable identified and defined niche customer expectations. After learnings garnered in this phase, we mapped these previously undiscovered customer needs to a roadmap aligned with Beneficent workflows to design and implement a unique service flow and architecture.

The authenticated experience design includes a sleek interface that builds upon existing Beneficent branding. However, most vitally, the digital experience guides investors through the liquidity request process seamlessly and intuitively — enabling users to access an ease of service that will never be duplicated by picking up the phone to call an advisor. Whether it’s submitting a request for liquidity or simply checking in with the Beneficent team, the updated architecture engages with new investors in a way that delights them rather than frustrates them.

The soon to be launched portal is merely the tip of the iceberg for Beneficent’s long-term, digital-first growth strategy. High net worth investors and their representatives that once had to engage with multiple layers of complicated bureaucracy can now access much needed liquidity through an authenticated portal that greatly cuts down on time-to-offer. As Beneficent continues to grow awareness and gain efficiencies in their digital-first model, the portal experience and architecture will allow them to scale to other product offerings, and even integrate with other platforms.

Extractable is proud to have partnered with Beneficent in launching a brand-new market and liquidity offering from the ground up. When the integrated forces of customer-centric strategy, frictionless user experience, and purposeful design unite — the digital channel will always drive growth beyond expectations.