Fulcrum

The challenge

Empowering Fulcrum Asset Management’s Digital Transformation

Fulcrum Asset Management is an independent, FCA-authorised and SEC-registered asset manager with $8.3 billion in AUM, serving institutional allocators including pension schemes, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and family offices from offices in London, New York, and Tokyo. Founded in 2004 by Gavyn Davies – former Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs and Chairman of the BBC – the firm runs discretionary, alternative, and quantitative strategies across all major asset classes. Approximately 85% of AUM is sourced from institutional investors, and their flagship diversified absolute return fund has never recorded a losing year.

Fulcrum faced three interconnected challenges. They were overpaying for an underutilised SaaS platform from their existing supplier. Their brand positioning had fallen behind competitors in an increasingly competitive asset management market. And they needed a new brand identity, website, and custom fund centre that could meet the expectations of a sophisticated institutional allocator base – the kind of investors who benchmark every touchpoint against firms like Schroders, Baillie Gifford, and BlackRock.

The goal:

Fulcrum needed to transition away from their existing provider while simultaneously upgrading their entire digital presence. This was not a single deliverable but a multi-workstream transformation spanning technology, branding, content, and user experience. The firm had recently won Best ESG Investment Fund at the 2023 ESG Investing Awards, secured a strategic partnership with Fidante for distribution across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia, and launched a new investment brand, Horizon Global Partners. The digital presence needed to reflect the ambition and trajectory of a firm that had evolved from a London-based macro fund into a global, multi-strategy asset manager with diversified capabilities across discretionary, alternatives, and systematic investing. Freshly Brewed was tasked with delivering a comprehensive solution and setting Fulcrum on a path toward improved efficiency and stronger market positioning.

The approach

A Multi-Faceted Digital Transformation

Given the tight timeline and the breadth of work required, multiple workstreams needed to run in parallel from the outset. After scoping, requirements gathering, and brand discovery sessions, Freshly Brewed activated four simultaneous workstreams.

Brand identity development:

We created a series of six mood boards, each taking Fulcrum’s identity from a retail look and feel toward something professional and modern. Benchmarking against their clients, competitors, and peers in the asset management space – firms managing tens of billions with institutional-grade digital presences – we developed a bespoke suite of graphics used across all media. Through multiple feedback rounds with core stakeholders including Managing Directors and senior partners, we arrived at a brand identity built for longevity.

Fund centre / literature library plugin development:

We scoped and developed a custom WordPress plugin to replace the costly SaaS platform Fulcrum had been using. Due to the regulatory complexity around FCA and SEC compliance, we needed a thorough understanding of how each country and investor type could access specific information on the website. Institutional investors in the UK, accredited investors in the US, and wholesale investors in Asia all require different levels of access to fund documentation, KIIDs, factsheets, and regulatory disclosures. The solution also had to make it straightforward for the Fulcrum team to manage and maintain hundreds of documents that require regular updates across multiple jurisdictions.

Content writing and tone of voice refresh:

Through interviews with multiple Managing Directors and team members across the business, we crafted a new, consistent tone of voice and refined key messaging across the entire website. The language needed to communicate the intellectual rigour of a firm with six PhDs on its quantitative research team and a scientific advisory board of senior academics, without alienating the broader institutional audience. We positioned Fulcrum’s proprietary MARS framework – their Bayesian macro-allocation and risk system – as a credibility signal rather than a barrier to understanding.

Website site-mapping:

We created a streamlined site architecture, removing unnecessary layers from what had been a multi-country WordPress Multisite installation, and optimising the user experience throughout. The previous site had accumulated thousands of redundant pages across 15 country-specific subsites. We replaced this with a cookie-based attestation approach that maintained full regulatory compliance while reducing the page count by 90%.

As the brand identity phase concluded, we initiated the next phase of work: website wireframing and mock-ups in Figma, marketing asset and template creation including a Brand Kit, and an internal photo shoot covering portraits, abstract building imagery, and candid office photography.

Website development:

Finally, everything came together in a live website, launched on time and on budget. What began as a project has since evolved into a retained partnership, with Freshly Brewed continuing to support Fulcrum’s digital presence on an ongoing basis – including the integration of new investment brands like Horizon Global Partners and supporting the firm’s expansion into new markets through the Fidante distribution partnership.