UK stewardship fintech Tumelo has launched a new platform offering asset owners and managers AI-powered voting insights.
The platform, ProxyBeacon, enables stewardship teams to aggregate and analyse issuer data, develop their own stewardship policies and generate voting recommendations in house.
The announcement comes just over a week after US asset manager JP Morgan said it had cut ties with external proxy advisers in favour of an AI-powered proxy voting platform.
However, rather than seeking to replace stewardship capabilities, Tumelo said the new platform is designed to strengthen investors’ in house offerings. The company added that ProxyBeacon will be used by a number of asset owners and managers during this proxy season.
While Tumelo did not disclose the names of its initial users, it said clients include a mix of mid- to large-scale asset managers, typically with more than $100bn in assets under management.
It is currently offering proxy voting and other stewardship services to major asset managers including Fidelity International and Legal & General Investment Management, as well as a range of pension funds. These include LGPS funds such as Greater Manchester Pension Fund and Camden Pension Fund.
“Teams told us they needed to move faster, but not at the expense of rigour. They wanted to bring more of the research and decision-making process in house, while retaining clear oversight of how recommendations are formed and why,” said Will Goodwin, co-founder of Tumelo. “ProxyBeacon was built in response to that. It helps teams focus on what matters, while keeping full control and transparency over every output.”
In practice, the platform can be used to produce customised research reports, flag governance concerns and combine internal data with third party research. It can also notify investors of meeting outcomes and automatically populate engagement and escalation templates.
