Eight Roads Ventures has led a $12 million (about Rs 83 crore) investment round in intelligent wealth management platform StashAway, the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International Ltd said on Monday.
StashAway will use the proceeds from the Series B round for product development and market expansion, among others.
The three-year-old venture’s existing backer, Asia Capital & Advisors, the investment firm founded by Francis Rozario, the former CEO of Fullerton Financial Holdings, also participated in the latest round.
The Singapore-headquartered StashAway, which has about 40 employees, has raised $20.4 million in funding till date, across three rounds, it said in a statement.
“The financial backing from Eight Roads Ventures, one of the earliest investors in Alibaba, alongside the continued support of Asia Capital & Advisors, will accelerate investment product development for our clients in Singapore and Malaysia, while also supporting market expansion throughout the APAC region,” Michele Ferrario, CEO of StashAway, said.
Regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, StashAway is described as a robo-advisor to retail and accredited investors, and delivers automated personalised portfolio management to its customers.
It claims users across 125 nationalities and spread across 77 countries have opened an account and used the platform since launching services in Singapore in mid-2017.
The company, which also launched operations in Malaysia last year, has also introduced its own financial education programming, StashAway Academy.
“The disjointed Southeast Asian wealth management landscape offers great potential to low-cost digital investment managers. (StashAway’s) transparent pricing, robust investment methodology, and ease of use make for a compelling customer proposition,” Raj Dugar, managing partner – Asia at Eight Roads Ventures, said.
Eight Roads, which has invested $6 billion since 2008, and primarily backs companies operating across the healthcare, technology and consumer sectors, has invested in a number of ventures that have emerged from Asia’s third-largest economy, including BankBazaar, Chai Point, PharmEasy, Cipla Health and Shadowfax.
StashAway was founded in 2016 by Michele Ferrario, the former group chief executive of Kinnevik AB and Rocket Internet-backed fashion ecommerce venture Zalora; Freddy Lim, the former global head of derivatives strategy at Nomura, and serial entrepreneur Nino Ulsamer.
