Harvest Exchange (HVST.com), the fast-growing investment management marketplace platform today announced a $5 million Series B funding round led by Highland Capital Management, a global multi-strategy asset management firm, and a Harvest Exchange user. The round also features participation from existing investors Third Point LLC and Golden Tree Asset Management and new investor Marketplace Fund I.

Harvest Exchange offers a direct, scalable and SEC/FINRA compliant way for investment firms and research providers to enhance their branding through content marketing to a highly targeted community of sophisticated, accredited, and qualified investment product buyers. Content shared on Harvest by Verified Professionals outperforms the financial services industry average on other platforms by 10x+.

Indeed the FinTech sector is white hot, with global investment set to double from $10 billion in 2014 to $19.7 billion in 2015, according to a recent report by MarketResearch.com.

'Wall Street has been a black box of information whose archaic culture has made it inefficient and expensive for investment firms to access the right buyers, and correspondingly difficult for buyers to access a clear picture of the expertise available to them,' said Peter Hans, Harvest Exchange CEO. 'Harvest is tackling this long-standing problem by improving the discovery of, and access to, the best investment products, firms, and professionals the world has to offer.'

Harvest will use the proceeds to improve the discovery and marketplace features, across both web and mobile, to allow for a more scalable platform its rapidly growing investor community. As part of the deal, Highland Capital Management will join the Harvest Exchange Board of Directors.

'Our fund focus is digital marketplaces, and we view Harvest as the vertically integrated Linked In marketplace targeting the incredibly valuable demographic of investment firms and professions,' said Pete Hartigan, CEO and founder Marketplace Fund I. 'The market opportunity set for Harvest reminds me of SoFi where I worked with the founders from zero value to $1.3 billion.'

Since Harvest Exchange launched in 4Q13, more than 125,000 investors have signed up to access over 75,000 unique investment perspectives from over 5,000 firms managing in excess of $5T in assets; and now receives up to 1,500 new macro thoughts, investment presentations and white papers per week.

About Harvest

Harvest is the financial discovery and communication marketplace that enhances the way investors share expertise and information with industry leaders, peers, and potential clients. Harvest includes the top money managers, research analysts, and sophisticated investors from the world's best asset management, research, and financial advisory firms. Harvest is free to join and members engage its 24/7 mix of the highest quality, transparent investment information from the brightest minds on the Street.