iCapital has opened its first Middle East office in the ADGM in Abu Dhabi, after receiving in-principle approval for advisory and arranging services—pending final approval by the regulator FSRA. This move represents a significant strategic expansion and reaffirms the company’s commitment to the UAE and the wider region. 

Marco Bizzozero, Head of International and Member of the Executive Committee at iCapital, explains the motivation and strategy behind establishing a presence in Abu Dhabi.

Mr. Bizzozero, how central is the Gulf region to iCapital’s global expansion strategy?

It is a natural continuation of our global expansion, which we accelerated five years ago. We are opening an office here in Abu Dhabi, in the ADGM. This reflects our strong commitment to the region and confirms how strategically important the Gulf is for us. The new office will be our gateway to the wider GCC region and will allow us to leverage the globally recognized regulatory environment of the ADGM and accelerate our growth.
We see a dynamic and rapidly evolving wealth-management market here, accompanied by growing interest in the private-markets asset class.

Is the office already officially open?

Yes, we officially opened our new office yesterday, on the 10th of December 2025.
This makes Abu Dhabi our tenth office outside the United States.
The company is 12 years old, headquartered in New York, and our global expansion began five years ago. We already have offices in Zurich, London, Edinburgh, Toronto, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney—and now Abu Dhabi. That is why I described this step as a natural continuation of our expansion.

Why is now the right time for iCapital to establish a presence in the UAE and the broader GCC?

Globally, we are seeing growing demand from individual investors seeking access to private markets. This has been our mission since the firm was founded 12 years ago: to facilitate access to private markets for individual investors.


Our technology solutions are designed to provide efficiency and convenience for advisors and their clients. Today, allocations to private markets by individual investors remain in the low single digits across all regions. As interest grows in increasing these allocations, it is essential to be closer to our clients—both asset managers and wealth managers. Our presence here is driven by this very shift.

What investment trends or structural changes are you seeing in the Gulf’s private-markets ecosystem?

On our platform, we currently oversee more than 280 billion US dollars in alternative assets, and around 45 billion of that already comes from outside the US. The most significant structural shift we are seeing—also in the Gulf—is the transition from public to private markets.


«Public markets are increasingly less reflective of the real economy.»

The number of listed companies has decreased by roughly one-third over the past 20 years. Companies also stay private longer and go public much later in their life cycle. As a result, much of the value creation occurs while companies are still private. Public markets are increasingly less reflective of the real economy.


This structural trend is driving strong interest from banks, wealth managers, and advisors who want to ensure that their clients can participate in this development. That is why demand for private-markets access is growing—and why we are here.

Which iCapital platform products and asset classes are seeing the strongest demand from institutional investors and wealth managers in the GCC?

We observe that wealth-management clients want to build diversified portfolios for their clients—with a core allocation to private markets. That is their primary focus.
 They aim to diversify across all private-market sub-asset classes: private equity (including venture capital, growth capital, large buyouts, primaries and secondaries), private debt, real estate, and infrastructure.


«Wealth-management clients aim to diversify across all private-market sub-asset classes.»

Our platform enables banks and wealth managers to build these diversified portfolios for their private-client base over time—in partnership with leading global private-markets firms.

How does iCapital evaluate potential partnerships with regional banks, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices?

We are already partnering with banks in the region. Our role is to facilitate access to private markets for advisors and their clients. Our technology provides an end-to-end digital process—from learning about the products to subscribing and managing the full investment lifecycle.
 It creates efficiency and a seamless experience for advisors and investors, making private-markets investing as straightforward as investing in a mutual fund.

What role do partnerships with global asset managers play in your offering for the GCC today?


iCapital is a B2B company. On one side, we serve banks and wealth managers; on the other, we serve asset managers. For banks, we provide a single access point—the iCapital Marketplace—enabling advisors to build diversified portfolios for their clients, supported by education, research, and portfolio-construction tools.
For asset managers, we provide efficient access to the global wealth-management channel—an important, growing, yet highly fragmented pool of capital. Through our platform, we help facilitate fundraising from this channel.