Tuesday 19 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 25): Digital wealth manager StashAway announced that it is now managing over US$1 billion (RM4.05 billion) of assets, a feat that it achieved in less than four years after the company began offering its services in the region.

A key contributor to the increase in assets under management was the strong returns it generated through the volatile markets in the last few years, said the company in a press release.

This included two market corrections in 2018 and a market crash in 2020. As at end-December 2020, StashAway's portfolios generated annualised returns ranging from 16.3% (for its highest-risk portfolio)
to 3.5% (for its lowest-risk portfolio) since its launch in July 2017.

In 2020, returns ranged from 22.8% to 3.9% for the same portfolios, outperforming same-risk benchmarks.

StashAway was founded in Singapore in 2016. Since then, it has established offices in Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was the first digital investment manager — more commonly known as robo-advisor — to receive a licence from the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) in 2018.

Last July, the company launched StashAway Simple, a cash management portfolio that invests clients’ funds in a money market fund.

“When the company was founded, our objective was to significantly improve the way people build their wealth. For those who do invest their savings, traditional investment options just weren’t acceptable. But we knew that cash in the bank was actually our biggest competitor,” said Michele Ferrario, a co-founder and the chief executive officer (CEO) of StashAway.

“In Asia, 46% of financial wealth is held in bank deposits, compared with 14% in North America. 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 key to our fast growth.”  

Edited ByLam Jian Wyn
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