Sol Zlotchenko | FinTech Magazine

The global financial industry has seen a significant increase in regulatory and market constraints around the management of cash, liquidity, portfolio funding and security. The need for robust treasury and liquidity management solutions has never been more important, and a new breed of FinTech service providers are pioneering cutting-edge technology-centric solutions to help businesses adapt and thrive in this new environment.

Headquartered in New York with offices in London, Bournemouth and Hong Kong, Hazeltree is a leader in finance and liquidity management technologies for the alternative asset management industry. The company’s unique cloud-based solutions are transforming how investment firms manage their capital activities, enabling them to unlock additional value and improve operational efficiency while strengthening internal controls and managing risk.

Chief Strategy and Product Officer Sol Zlotchenko joined Hazeltree in 2016, drawing on more than 20 years of software industry experience as well as extensive financial technology and hedge fund expertise. Today, Zlotchenko leads all aspects of technology direction and product development for Hazeltree’s treasury solutions.

Zlotchenko’s appointment came at a crucial time. His expertise in building innovative FinTech products and scaling development organizations was an important part of the company’s plans to take its products to the next level. Moreover, his ongoing leadership is also important in evaluating cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning, algorithmic optimization and big data.

FinTech is here to continue to lead the charge

Zlotchenko has previously built and scaled companies from launch to product delivery and received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University in the US. After early career positions as a technologist at Goldman Sachs and CTO at Alexandra Investment Management, he co-founded investment management solutions provider Paladyne Systems in 2005, acquired by Broadridge Financial Solutions in 2011. He was also the founder of quantitative hedge fund West End Capital and co-founder of Select Venture Partners, an early stage VC.

“I started back in the 1990s when the internet was just exploding,” Zlotchenko explains. “I lived through the technological wild west at the time being part of the technology and financial industry and saw it transform into an advanced and disruptive industry called FinTech, which has been very exciting. It is part of history now, but still evolving and evolving. FinTech is definitely here to stay, disrupt and continue to lead the charge.”

In the past, many companies would manage large amounts of money on spreadsheets, a practice that still exists in some cases today. But an epiphany came with the continuous influx of large capital and ever-increasing investment complexity, says Zlotchenko, a “Eureka!” the moment occurred when industry could not support itself and its growing flow of capital based only on people.

“It was when digital transformation was happening in the industry, and Hazeltree found itself in the right place at the right time,” says Zlotchenko. “So we have committed ourselves to the financial services industry and have grown with its needs and built products by working with insiders that really helped our customers along the way. The change and innovation is still happening at a fast pace and we hope for much more development in the industry, particularly on the private equity side of the sector.

“We see transformations,” he explains. “Some of the large hedge funds are expanding into private markets such as private equity, private debt real estate, and active cross-pollination is taking place in many areas, various creative strategies are being used, and new investment opportunities are being uncovered with the assistance of advanced technologies such as AI/ML and Big Data Analytics. We are also seeing new asset classes such as cryptocurrencies entering the global asset management community that require even deeper understanding and investment in technology.”

The pandemic and geopolitics have introduced a lot of volatility and uncertainty, while technology, with the introduction of tools and services – including the proliferation of algorithmic trading and quantitative models – has come to dominate the sector. Meanwhile, the private market side of the sector is growing at a rapid pace as it generally attracts more stable investments than those made by hedge funds.

“Technology is a big factor,” says Zlotchenko. “Historically, hedge funds were very hungry for technology and relied on it even before FinTech became FinTech. Between trading, data management, risk management and accounting, everything is driven by technology.”

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