SMArtX Advisory Solutions has secured a $30m investment from Morningstar Investment Management as part of its Series D funding round.

The investment comes on the close heels of Morningstar’s expanded alliance to leverage SMArtX’s technology to power its turnkey asset management platform. The two companies first partnered in November 2021.

SMArtX provides a direct indexing platform with 133 strategies for RIAs, broker-dealers, and asset managers.

The capital from Morningstar will enable the firm to enhance its development capabilities, including those that will support Morningstar’s existing platform and a direct indexing solution, which is set to launch later this year.

A portion of the investment will support of the further development of SMArtX’s technology and capabilities to provide managed account technology to a range of firms.

Particularly, the firm intends to bolster its API solutions to offer additional integrations and grow its implementation teams to support future growth.

This is expected to enable SMArtX to roll out new product offerings, including fixed income strategies in unified managed account (UMA).

SMArtX CEO Evan Rapoport said: “Morningstar has already demonstrated their ability to be a strong collaborator as we work together to set the standard for managed account technology.

“We continue to build the engine that will help grow Morningstar’s TAMP by consolidating its data, research and analytics capabilities into a platform designed for today’s advisor.”

As part of the investment, Morningstar Wealth Management Solutions group president Daniel Needham and Morningstar chief strategy officer Michael Holt will join SMArtX’s board of directors.

Commenting on the investment, Needham said: “SMArtX has a track record of building products that offer greater flexibility, advisor choice and personalization at scale, which aligns with our mission of empowering investor success.”