BlackRock : to Take a Minority Equity Stake in Digital Investment Manager Scalable Capital

Press Release

Scalable Capital, based in Munich and London, is one of Europe's fastest growing digital investment managers. Since its launch just 16 months ago, Scalable Capital has already gathered over €250m of assets from over 6,000 retail clients, and has established a leading proposition with strong demand from financial institutions and corporates. The firm has seen strong growth in Germany and the UK, two of the most attractive and competitive markets for digital investment managers in Europe, and has the ability to expand its offering even further across the Continent. The offering provides a flexible multi-language and currency platform that can operate across multiple international tax and regulatory regimes.

Patrick Olson, Chief Operating Officer of EMEA at BlackRock, commented on the rationale of the investment: "The retail distribution landscape is evolving at a rapid pace, as consumers increasingly engage with their financial investments through technology. This trend is prompting strong demand from European financial institutions - including banks, insurers, wealth managers and advisory firms - for high-quality technology-enabled investment solutions. Our investment in Scalable Capital allows us to meet these evolving needs of our clients and their customers and to help shape their business models for the future."

BlackRock has a deep heritage in technology. From the creation of Aladdin, its risk management and analytics platform, to its more recent expansion in digital wealth management solutions, the firm has developed and invested in the industry's most sophisticated technologies, delivering them in an accessible way to its clients to help them achieve better outcomes. The investment in Scalable Capital complements BlackRock's existing digital wealth management suite, which includes Aladdin Risk for Wealth, iRetire, iCapital and FutureAdvisor in the US.

Erik Podzuweit, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Scalable Capital said: "BlackRock shares our vision that technology is not just a competitive advantage but a requirement for wealth management businesses to be successful in the future. Its investment in our firm is a fantastic validation of our work so far, opens up new growth avenues for our business and firmly establishes us on the digital wealth management map in Europe. BlackRock's backing provides a huge opportunity for us to partner with their clients to help accelerate our business with financial institutions and corporates."

Scalable Capital expects the changing regulatory landscape in Europe to result in the need for financial institutions to increase investor protection, value for money and transparency. Consequently, firms will be seeking technological solutions to assist with portfolio construction, risk management, and digital distribution. Scalable Capital's platform provides a practical solution for firms looking at technology to help shape their business models for the future.

Scalable Capital will remain an independent company. Its product selection and asset allocation decisions will continue to be independent.

The investment is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close in the third quarter of 2017.

UK

Marianne Slamich marianne@scalable.capital,

+44 7426 321320

Germany

Hering Schuppener Folker Dries, Tanja Dorr

scalable@heringschuppener.com

+49 69 92187467, +49 175 2967716

Marc Bubeck Marc.Bubeck@blackrock.com

+49 69 50 500 3072

Scalable Capital is a group of companies comprising of two independent financial services providers in the area of digital wealth management in Germany and the United Kingdom. The group was founded in 2014 by Erik Podzuweit, Florian Prucker, Adam French (all formerly with Goldman Sachs) and Professor Stefan Mittnik, PhD (Director of the Chair of Financial Econometrics and Director of the Center for Quantitative Risk Analysis at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich). The company currently employs a team of 50 people across its two locations in Munich and London, many of them experts in financial econometrics and machine learning as well as software engineering.

Scalable Capital creates and manages globally diversified ETF portfolios for its clients to help them achieve their long-term financial goals, supported by a proprietary risk management technology. It aims to make investment management cheaper, more accessible and more conveni ent. Scalable Capital Vermögensverwaltung GmbH is regulated by the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin) in Germany, while Scalable Capital Limited is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom.

BlackRock is a global leader in investment management, risk management and advisory services for institutional and retail clients. At March 31, 2017, BlackRock's AUM was $5.4 trillion. BlackRock helps clients around the world meet their goals and overc ome challenges with a range of products that include separate accounts, mutual funds, iShares® (exchange-traded funds), and other pooled investment vehicles. BlackRock also offers risk management, advisory and enterprise investment system services to a broad base of institutional investors through Black Rock Solutions®. As of March 31, 2017, the firm had approximately 13,000 employees in more than 30 countries and a major presence in global markets, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East and Africa. For additional information, please visit the Company's website at www.blackrock.com