Andrew Rogers is back as a CEO, this time leading a fintech company that's trying to bring SMAs to the masses. And a familiar investor is involved in his new venture.

Rogers, who stepped down as Gemini CEO in April after 16 years with the firm, joined FusionIQ as CEO on December 1. Rogers' move comes as FusionIQ is going through other changes and bringing in new investors.

"We've actually just recapitalized the company," Rogers tells MFWire. He adds that Mike Miola, one of the founders of NorthStar (Gemini's parent), is the largest new investor in FusionIQ. "He's going to be our chairman of the board."

Based in Wellesley, Massachusetts and in New York City, FusionIQ is a research company with its own proprietary scoring system for stocks. Now they're taking that research engine and model portfolios, 125 different baskets of 20 to 30 stocks each. Like in separately managed accounts, the individual investor will own the individual stocks in the basket, as opposed to owning a piece of a pooled product like a mutual fund or a collective trust.

Yet FusionIQ is trying to bring these models to the broader, retail marketplace. Rogers hints that in the first quarter of 2018 they'll be teaming up "with a very large internet retailer to provide that service to consumers."

"We're not reinventing portfolio management, but we're bringing different ways to distribute to the marketplace," Rogers says. "We are in the process of signing up clients right now."

Though FusionIQ's initial models will be built directly out of individual stocks, Rogers foresees teaming up with asset managers and strategists to offer their models, too, perhaps in fixed income or international investing.

"I want this to be more of a platform," Rogers says.

Rogers leads a team of eight, but watch for him to hire next year.

"We're expecting hopefully rapid growth in 2018," Rogers says. 

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