The financial services sector is shaken by the technological revolution reshaping the world, and the wealth management industry is no stranger to this transformation. Since the financial crisis hit the markets in 2008, the sector has experienced massive changes, and the pandemic has only accelerated the pace of these changes.

Higher regulation and compliance costs and different expectations from the customers or new incumbents are just some of the new challenges financial institutions face for the future of wealth management.

Amid this scenario, Fintech startups have found the perfect breeding ground to grow. These companies are faster, closer to new generations of customers, and more flexible when change is needed to survive. We have chosen six startups shaping the future of managing wealth.

Cred

Cred is a data-driven wealth management firm. It works with banks to offer each client highly individualized, data-driven wealth management services - at scale. This Indian company provides an AI-based B2B platform changing how financial institutions acquire and engage clients in the investment advisory industry.

“With Cred, financial institutions deliver highly personalized investment portfolios to digital clients - That helps FIs increase conversion rates, engagement, and AUM.” Ben Fried, CEO and Co-Founder at Cred.

Cred’s data platform enables financial institutions to utilize their client data and relationship to offer the right financial product, to the right client, at the right time.

Responsive.ai

Of course, we had to add robo-advisors to the list. These tools are changing the wealth management industry, from how wealth managers work to how customers contact them.

Responsive.ai is not just another robo-advisor, though.

“Responsive isa hybrid wealth advisor solution for enterprises. We help managers grow client wealth and loyalty by providing personalized and adaptive service at scale.” Davyde Wachell, CEO and Co-Founder,

Responsive enables enterprise research tools that help understand client diversity and drive revenue and loyalty. Additionally, they provide cognitive assistance to frontline advisors that can focus on actions that defend and grow assets. By leveraging client analytics, Responsive improves wealth team performance at scale and offers a hybrid wealth advisor service model designed to evolve with clients' changing needs.

Bambu

Founded in 2016 by Ned Phillips, Luke Janssen, and Aki Ranin, Bambu is Asia’s Premier B2B Robo-Advisor. The company’s robo-advisor technology aims to transform digital wealth globally.

“We enable businesses by making saving and investing more straightforward and intelligent for their clients. Our proprietary algorithms and machine learning tools power the smart advisory solution” - Ned Phillips, Founder and CEO at Bambu.

Bambu is Singapore-based with subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom and representatives in Africa, Europe, and America.

But how do they help financial institutions?

“First, we offer investors a natural experience in finding the right investment strategy for their client's needs. Instead of a traditional single-risk profile portfolio, the white label creates personalized portfolios for each of your life goals. And second, Bambu offers a dashboard that improves the efficiency of relationship managers within the banks by creating talking points for their clients. The platform processes various live and past data to offer a unified view of the market and house view.” Phillips says.

Sarwa

This Dubai-based fintech combines innovative technology and human advice to make expert investing available for everyone. The platform’s algorithms and human advisors help Sarwa’s clients open an account in minutes via facial recognition, track their goals via an intuitive dashboard, and rebalance their portfolios when the market causes their investments to drift from their target.

Source: Sarwa. On their website, you can estimate the projection of your investments 

“We help financial institutions differentiate and expand their reach to offer wealth advisory to the mass-affluent and retail clients. We do this by leveraging technology to optimize their cost-to-serve, and offering an intuitive and easy-to-use dashboard to allow clients to make sense of their financial picture and manage their investments.” - Mark Chahwan, Co-Founder and CEO at Sarwa.

handcheque

This Vienna-based company has a mission that looks simple, but it’s definitely not. Handcheque aims to make payments easier and more convenient. The company has developed a smart card that enables customers to store all their payments and loyalty cards on one certified Mastercard card with the same dimensions as any other card.

The handcheque card comes with a complimentary that acts as a personal finance manager where customers have all their spending and loyalty cards in one place.

“handcheque is a B2B company that offers its technology to financial institutions. The main benefit is the collection of all transaction and loyalty data, which gives financial institutions a better understanding of their customers.

Customers can channel all their existing cards through the handcheque card, which gives financial institutions a unique and comprehensive set of data about their customers. Based on this, they can offer tailored services and products to their client needs, particular financial products, and concierge services for high net worth clients.” Khaled Asef is the CEO at handcheque.

AdviceRobo

Founded by Diederick van Thiel and Rosali Steenkamer in 2013, AdviceRobo offers predictive risk services and technology to help financial institutions increase acceptance rates for credit applications while keeping the risk level the same. Their secret weapon? Artificial Intelligence.

Their AI-based platform combines data from structured and unstructured sources to create a psychographic credit score that measures financial attitude, motivation, and behavior. Lenders can use this score to accept thin files they would otherwise reject, resulting in more customers, less risk, or both.

Today, AdviceRobo's achievements speak for themselves. They're listed among the KPMG/H2 Global Fintech 100 and the London City Fintech 50 and have won multiple awards for their role in responsible lending. And let's not forget their catchy motto: "AdviceRobo eats risk for breakfast." Accurate indeed!

Finding the best wealth management startups

The Fintech team at Plug and Play Tech Center is dedicated to discovering the most promising wealth management startups. Our experts have an always-on approach to sourcing innovative companies shaping the financial services' future.

For corporations in the industry, change can be difficult and slow. However, collaborating with startups is becoming essential to corporate innovation strategy, with most worldwide leading corporations partnering with young startups.

At Plug and Play, we help corporations every step of the way. Our Fintech program nurtures and fosters innovation in financial services. Discover how you can benefit from our program, and get in touch today.