Welcome to the latest edition of At the Forefront: Fintech Conversations!
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In this episode, Forefront Head of Content Sam Belden sits down with Rashad Kurbanov, CEO of Corastone. Together, they explore the operational and infrastructure challenges surrounding the rapid growth of private markets, with a focus on scalability, investor access, distributed ledger technology and the future of private market infrastructure.
The conversation begins with an overview of the private markets landscape and the growing disconnect between surging investor demand and the operational systems supporting the space. As Rashad explains, private markets have evolved from a largely institutional segment into one increasingly accessed by private wealth and high-net-worth investors. However, unlike the public markets — where trading infrastructure enables seamless transactions — private markets continue to rely heavily on fragmented workflows, manual processes and disconnected systems.
From there, the discussion turns to the infrastructure gap at the center of the industry’s scalability challenges. Rashad compares today’s private market experience to “buying a house,” with paperwork, delays and multiple counterparties operating through siloed communication channels. He explains how Corastone uses distributed ledger technology to streamline those interactions by enabling firms to connect through a shared infrastructure layer rather than maintaining countless point-to-point connections.
Sam and Rashad also explore how operational inefficiencies impact different market participants across the ecosystem, including GPs, wealth managers and fund administrators. As participation in private markets expands, many firms are still relying on legacy operational processes that were never designed to support larger-scale investor access.
The conversation also looks ahead to how infrastructure modernization could reshape the private market experience. Rashad outlines a future where investing in private markets becomes significantly more seamless — not only during the initial investment process, but also across transfers, withdrawals and ongoing investment management.
Finally, the conversation touches on Corastone’s recent momentum and the growing institutional adoption of its platform. Rashad discusses the company’s recent go-live milestones with major industry participants and explains how proving the technology at scale has accelerated interest across the market. He also highlights the importance of infrastructure providers operating behind the scenes to enable firms to focus on their core business while reducing operational complexity, lowering costs and improving efficiency.
For more conversations with fintech and capital markets leaders, explore the At the Forefront podcast archive or our YouTube channel.
If you’d like to learn more about Corastone and their work, visit corastone.us.
TLDR
1:15 – The growth of private markets and the infrastructure gap
6:00 – How Corastone uses DLT to streamline private market operations
11:15 – Why scaling private markets requires modern infrastructure
15:15 – What the future of private market investing could look like