The first deals with the three fundamental changes occurring within the asset management industry: fund structures becoming more complex, investors getting more demanding, and the regulatory environment becoming more onerous. Secondly, the potential efficiency and convenience from digital technology is fundamentally changing existing functions within the asset management industry while providing new, previously unavailable capabilities.

Pepper's founders had previously worked together when their team was launching a new multi-billion dollar alternative asset fund. Having struggled to find any infrastructure technology solution to manage their business, they put together a home-grown solution to get started. Their fund grew exponentially in a short period of time, and they lived through the pains of using hundreds of Excel spreadsheets and other similar time consuming, inefficient third-party solutions for managing the business's complex demands. After their fund was acquired by one of the largest alternative asset managers in the world, the founders left to launch Pepper.