Strategic Enabler: How Alpha First Transformed Private Credit Management with Caruso

Introduction: Disciplined Private Credit Investment Management

Established in 2016, Alpha First has built a distinctive position in New Zealand's private credit market through its standalone investment approach. Unlike pooled fund structures, Alpha First provides wholesale investors with individual, credit-approved property funding opportunities, each secured by first mortgages. With over $750 million successfully invested since inception, the Cambridge-based platform has demonstrated the viability of giving investors direct control over their investment selections whilst maintaining rigorous credit standards.

"We believe in making your hard-earned capital work harder for you," explains Bruce Bodley-Davies, Investor Relations Manager at Alpha First. This philosophy extends beyond investment returns to encompass the entire investor experience—from initial offer presentation through ongoing portfolio management and monthly income distribution.

As the platform's investor base expanded and the volume of transactions increased, Alpha First recognised that their operational infrastructure needed to evolve. Managing dozens of standalone investments, each with unique terms and borrower arrangements, required technology that could consolidate processes whilst maintaining the transparency and control that distinguished their investment model.

The Challenge: Fragmented Systems Limiting Growth

Alpha First's operational framework had developed organically over time, resulting in a patchwork of independent systems that created significant inefficiencies and constrained the platform's ability to scale effectively.

"We used multiple independent systems and a lot of Excel," Bodley-Davies recalls. "The systems didn't talk to each other, and some of those systems were based offshore as well, so getting support from those systems was challenging."

This fragmentation manifested in several critical operational areas:

• Distribution Calculations and Processing: The monthly distribution process exemplified the challenges of disconnected systems. "We had to use essentially Excel spreadsheets to calculate distributions, and we had to review those manually because rounding variances that sneaked into these things had to be applied consistently between investors and between different distributions," Bodley-Davies explains. "Excel was the source of truth, and we needed to reconcile that information back and forth between the various other systems that we used to make those rounding adjustment corrections." This manual approach was not merely time-consuming—it introduced risk. Each distribution cycle required careful verification to ensure consistency, and the potential for errors increased with every transaction.
• Limited Investor Portal Functionality: The existing offshore-based portal provided minimal value to investors or the Alpha First team. "It had very limited functionality and only a few investors used it," notes Bodley-Davies. "It really only hosted investor statements, and it couldn't host offers in the way that Caruso can." For a platform built on investor choice and transparency, this limitation was particularly constraining. Without an effective digital interface for presenting opportunities, Alpha First struggled to efficiently communicate with its growing investor base.
• Manual Capital Raising Processes: Communicating investment opportunities to investors required extensive individual outreach. "It was very manual and we used a lot of bespoke emails to investors, and of course keeping track of those responses and who had viewed things was very challenging for us," Bodley-Davies shares.This approach not only consumed significant staff time but also made it difficult to gauge investor interest accurately or manage the investment process efficiently.
• Investor Support Challenges: The limitations of the existing portal created additional support burdens. "Staff had no impersonate ability on the old portal, so it was really difficult to support customers when they were trying to use our portal," Bodley-Davies notes. When investors encountered difficulties, the team struggled to diagnose and resolve issues effectively.
• Scaling Limitations: Perhaps most concerning was how these operational constraints were beginning to affect Alpha First's market position. "Because we had no portal to promote our offer to investors, we're beginning to look behind the times," Bodley-Davies admits. "Promoting offers to investors and updates on their existing investments was a really time-consuming process, and it was challenging to effectively manage investor feedback and interest." The cumulative effect of these challenges extended beyond operational inefficiency. "It was time-consuming and inconsistent. There was a lack of tech support with the systems that we did use and it was quite expensive for what was actually provided," summarises Bodley-Davies.

The Solution: Unified Platform for Private Credit Operations

Alpha First selected Caruso for its ability to consolidate the entire investment lifecycle—from opportunity presentation through ongoing fund management—within a single, modern fund administration platform.

"We were looking to consolidate as many activities as possible onto one system, whilst also adopting a modern, high-quality platform to promote our offers to investors and enabling them to easily access and manage their holdings and transactions," explains Bodley-Davies.

The implementation approach reflected Alpha First's commitment to maintaining service continuity whilst modernising operations. "It was very smooth. We initially ran both systems in parallel for a short period of time until we were confident with the new processes. Then we gradually phased out the old systems," Bodley-Davies shares. "Similarly, we transitioned investors onto Caruso in manageable volumes."

Caruso's solution addressed Alpha First's operational requirements through several integrated capabilities:

• Comprehensive Offer Management: The platform's ability to present investment opportunities effectively immediately distinguished it from previous solutions. "The way investment offers could be presented and managed to our investors" was the feature that initially appealed most to the Alpha First team, according to Bodley-Davies.The digital data room functionality enabled Alpha First to provide detailed Investment Information Packs to investors efficiently, maintaining the transparency that underpinned their investment model whilst significantly reducing the manual effort required to distribute opportunity information.
• Automated Distribution Calculations: Caruso eliminated the complex Excel-based reconciliation process that had consumed significant team resources. "The ease of calculating investor distributions and redemptions" transformed a time-consuming, error-prone process into an automated workflow that maintained consistency across hundreds of standalone investments.
• Intuitive Investor Portal: The modern interface provided investors with 24/7 access to their portfolio information, transaction history, and key documents. "The investor support requirements were really minimal because Caruso is a very intuitive platform," notes Bodley-Davies. This self-service capability reduced support demands whilst enhancing the investor experience.
• Single Source of Truth: By consolidating operations within one system, Caruso addressed the fundamental challenge of fragmented data. "Because there's one source of truth, this has substantially reduced the need for us to seek information from our colleagues from the various disparate manual systems," Bodley-Davies explains.
• Responsive Implementation Support: The Caruso team demonstrated flexibility in addressing Alpha First's specific requirements. "There was a really good level of support. The process was relatively simple. There were clear timelines and agreed KPIs, regular check-ins for support and questions, and they were really responsive to our specific needs as a company," Bodley-Davies reports. This responsiveness extended beyond the initial implementation. "They've been very supportive and responsive and in some cases have made specific changes to their systems to meet our needs. For example, the statements module. In other cases, they've been able to suggest new approaches to managing existing issues that we had."

The Results: Operational Excellence and Enhanced Investor Experience

The transformation delivered by Caruso has been comprehensive, touching every aspect of Alpha First's operations whilst significantly enhancing the investor experience.

• Streamlined Internal Operations: The consolidation of processes within a single platform has eliminated the inefficiencies of managing multiple disconnected systems. "Because we're managing our investments from A to Z within the one system, it makes it simple to understand where the role boundaries are between our functions and see what has or hasn't been completed," Bodley-Davies explains.This operational clarity has enhanced team collaboration and reduced the time spent reconciling information across systems or tracking down data from colleagues.
• Improved Investor Communications: Caruso has transformed Alpha First's ability to reach and engage with investors efficiently. "It's made it far easier to reach a larger audience faster and allows investor information to be distributed far more effectively. It makes it more easily retrievable in the future," notes Bodley-Davies.This improved communication capability directly supports Alpha First's growth objectives by enabling the platform to engage with a broader investor base without proportional increases in support overhead.
• Exceptional Investor Response: The investor reaction to the new portal has validated the technology investment. "Without exception, the investors using our portal strongly prefer it over the previous offering. We've received multiple compliments from long-term investors about our decision to use Caruso," Bodley-Davies shares.The platform's intuitive design has proven accessible even to investors less comfortable with technology. "We've even found some of our less computer-savvy investors are keen to get on board and have found it easy and intuitive to use."Perhaps the most telling indicator of success has been the reduction in support queries. "I think one of the most telling compliments really is the silence. We just simply don't receive the volume of calls that we used to from investors that were chasing information," Bodley-Davies observes.
• Scalability Without Proportional Cost Increases: Caruso's efficiency gains have created a platform for sustainable growth. "The investor experience delivered through the portal significantly reduces the effort required to support customers and distribute information. So this will effectively allow us to scale up without adding additional cost," Bodley-Davies explains. This scalability extends beyond current operations to accommodate future product development. "What I've noticed is its flexibility. And as we as a company are considering different types of product offerings, I'm confident that Caruso's got the flexibility to manage whatever we can come up with."
• Strategic Enabler: The implementation has fundamentally changed how Alpha First views technology's role in their business. "For me it's definitely made a change. It's become apparent that Caruso is a strategic enabler for us by consolidating processes and improving investor experience and reducing operational complexity," reflects Bodley-Davies.

"It's become central to how we scale up efficiently. I think it's going to help us drive growth, ensure we meet compliance requirements and deliver a confident experience for investors. It's simply not a back-office tool, it's a strategic enabler."

By embracing Caruso's integrated approach to private credit platform management, Alpha First has successfully modernised their operations whilst preserving the investor choice and transparency that distinguishes their investment model. The result is a scalable foundation that positions them for continued growth whilst delivering the professional, efficient experience their investors expect from a leading private credit platform. With Caruso providing the operational backbone, Alpha First now has the confidence to promote to a wider audience, secure in the knowledge that their technology infrastructure can support expansion without compromising service quality or operational integrity.