WeInvest will focus on offering digital wealth solutions to financial institutions in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and South Korea.
WeInvest, a Singapore-based WealthTech firm, announced its entry into North Asia with the appointment of Thomas Tse as Head of Sales.
Thomas will lead WeInvest’s efforts to provide digital wealth solutions to financial institutions across Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and South Korea. WeInvest’s products cater to the needs of both the affluent and High Net Worth Individuals (HNIs), wealth managers and others targeting the mass market and emerging affluent.
Thomas brings with him more than 15 years of experience in financial technology. He has a strong background in strategic consulting, digital wealth transformation, enterprise architecture, and solution design. Before joining WeInvest, Thomas led Sales and Business Development for Greater China at Bloomberg and Finantix. He will be based in Hong Kong.
Commenting on the appointment, Bhaskar Prabhakara, CEO and Co-Founder of WeInvest said, “With Thomas’ expertise across financial technology sales and wealth management solutions, we look forward to serving clients in North Asia, an important market for WeInvest. We believe Thomas will work closely with financial institutions and bring the best of WeInvest’s digital wealth solutions to the market. We look forward to Thomas being a great addition to the senior leadership team, where he can power the growth of a key market and also bring regional flavours to the WeInvest product portfolio.”
He further added on why there was a need for this role in North Asia and more specifically, Hong Kong, “The total assets in Hong Kong’s asset and wealth management industry reached HK$24.27 trillion (US$3.12 trillion) at the end of 2017, up from HK$18.2 trillion as compared to the previous year, based on a study by the Hong Kong’s Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) . As part of our ongoing growth plans, we see huge opportunities for partnerships with the financial industry in Hong Kong which will serve the needs of the underserved emerging affluent customers.”
Speaking on the future opportunities for WeInvest especially in Hong Kong, Thomas Tse, Head of Sales, North Asia, said, “The Hong Kong market and the rest of North Asia have very similar considerations to make but there is definitely a growing demand for sophisticated digital wealth solutions. With the many new initiatives such as ‘Belt and Road’, ‘Greater Bay Initiatives’ and ‘Virtual Banking’ introduced to the market, there will certainly be a change in the landscape of financial services and financial technology. This is already on top of the large Assets Under Management (AUM) and Hong Kong being the main gateway to the China market. I am excited to lead the team in North Asia where we foresee many opportunities and be part of the ecosystem as the industry keeps its pace with the changes.”
WeInvest recently expanded into the UAE to serve the Middle Eastern market with a strategic location at the Dubai Financial International Centre. The firm will also be running a “live” application of its solutions with a leading bank in Thailand in the first quarter of 2019, thus expanding its Southeast Asia footprint. Other recent collaborations include Singapore-based OCBC bank and CGS-CIMB Securities, to provide digital wealth platforms for their clients. The OCBC RoboInvest is an automated, algorithm-based digital investment service targeting young and tech-savvy investors, which requires an initial investment amount of just US$2,500. As for CGS-CIMB, the robo-advisory platform eWealth brings personalised investment advisory services to its retail clients anytime, anywhere.
WeInvest secured Series A funding of US$12.2 million from Schroders in 2018, enabling it to further expand the product suite as well as its geographic presence.