The Asia Pacific region has long been an important market for wealth management firms with the plethora of developing economies and a burgeoning retail investment market. But there’s still a huge market to capture: About 40% to 45% of personal financial assets in the region are held in cash and deposits as of 2023, according to a report by McKinsey.
Singapore-based investment platform Syfe has been working on making wealth management more accessible in the region by offering a variety of investment products and options, all via a smartphone app. The company has now raised a $27 million Series C round to offer more products and hasten its growth in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
Syfe was founded in 2017 and launched its app in July 2019, and has since expanded to more than 40 countries and amassed over 100,000 users as it focused on making it easy for retail investors to find and invest in products that are usually not available to them via banks or traditional investment platforms.
“Many people had tried traditional wealth managers, but the advice they were being given was always limited to the investment products that institution offered,” Syfe CEO and founder Dhruv Arora said. “Even if there were better products on the market, the wealth manager could not offer them. On top of that, the fees of the traditional wealth managers are very high.”
Syfe today offers everything from managed portfolios and fractional investing to cash management solutions and even a brokerage platform. The company also offers retail investors access to institutional products by partnering with banks and investment firms like Blackrock, Pimco and Vanguard. It does not require users to have a minimum deposit or meet additional requirements to avail these products. The company generates revenue from fees, Arora said.
That strategy seems to have worked: Syfe this year reached profitability in its home market of Singapore, and Arora said its average client’s assets on the platform have more than doubled since 2023. According to the company, its AUM is in the billions of U.S. dollars.
This Series C brings its total amount raised to $79 million and comes roughly three years after its $30 million Series B funding round in 2021. Two U.K.-based family offices and returning investors, Valar Ventures and Unbound, participated in the Series C. The company did not disclose its valuation.
Arora previously worked as an investment banker at UBS in Hong Kong. After leaving UBS, he led product development, growth and consumer services at Indian grocery delivery startup Grofers (now Blinkit), which was acquired by Zomato for $570 million.
Other investment apps in Southeast Asia include Pintu, Ajaib, Bibit and Pluang — all based in Indonesia. Syfe is often compared with Singapore-based Endowus and StashAway.
“This funding will enable us to reach more customers and help them grow their wealth for a better future,” Aurora said. “Through increased investment in development, we will bring even more innovative new products to market while continuously upgrading the Syfe user experience. We will also be assessing strategic investment opportunities or acquisition targets aligned with our mission and growth objectives.”
