Singaporean investment advisory platform StashAway announced today that it has surpassed USD 1 billion in assets under management since its inception in 2017, six months after it raised USD 16 million in a Series C funding round led by Australian venture capital firm Square Peg Capital in July last year.
StashAway’s country manager in Singapore Amanda Ong explained to KrASIA that the firm’s high return rate is a crucial factor driving growth. “One key driver has been the performance of our portfolios. We’ve consistently outperformed our same-risk benchmarks and generated USD annualized returns ranging from 17.1% (for our highest risk portfolio) to 5.3% (for our lowest-risk portfolio) since we launched in July 2017. In 2020 alone, the portfolio returns ranged from 24.1% to 5.2% for those same portfolios,” she said.
Despite the growth, Michele Ferrario, co-founder and CEO of StashAway, said in the release that cash in the bank remains the industry’s “biggest competitor”.
“For those who do invest their savings, traditional investment options just weren’t acceptable. But we knew that cash in the bank is actually our biggest competitor: in Asia, 46% of financial wealth is held in bank deposits, compared to 14% in North America,” said Michele Ferrario, co-founder and CEO of StashAway.
“That’s why we’ve always focused not only on sophisticated investment principles and a great customer experience but also financial education to help more people understand how to better manage and grow their wealth. This relationship with our clients and the public has been a key to our fast growth,” Ferrario added.
Launched in 2017 by a founding team steeped with experience in the finance industry, StashAway offers automated, personalized portfolio management services to both retail and accredited investors. The firm has now secured a total of USD 36.6 million in fundraising, including the USD 16 million Series C round last July.
Ong told KrASIA that StashAway is set to expand to “a few more countries in the region”, without disclosing the exact timeline or locations. Currently, the firm operates in Singapore, Malaysia, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
