A larger number of younger and other non-traditional investment audiences are now becoming more engaged with managing their finances and growing their wealth. This has led to a significant jump in the popularity of trading and wealth management apps. According to a study by App Radar, at least 6.4m people – approximately 12% of the UK adult population – are using at least one investment app to manage their finances.
Cashing on this trend is the UK-based wealth tech provider of digital investment services, WealthKernel, which has now raised an investment of $7m in its Series A+ funding round. The fresh funds will be used to support its integration of intraday trading and the expansion of its services into European markets. The round was led by XTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of XTX Markets, with participation from Digital Horizon, Big Start Ventures, and WealthKernel’s existing lead investor, ETFS Capital. The additional funding is an extension to the company’s $6m Series A which t raised in 2020.
Wealth management services for all
The vertically integrated company offers investing functionality over API, such as client onboarding, brokerage, trading, and custody. Its infrastructure is optimised for the delivery of investment and wealth-management services to everybody, not just ‘higher value’ and HNW retail investors typically serviced by incumbents.
Democratising investment services
One of the leading embedded investing providers in the UK, the startup founded in 2015 by Joe Campbell, Karan Shanmugarajah and Yannick Brunner, has enabled a number of diverse businesses such as Claro Money, Wahed, Wealth8 in the past year alone.
Driven by its ambition to democratise access to wealth and investment services, it has also entered underserved areas of the wealth services market, covering areas from halal and ethical investment to ESG.
Growing shift to digital wealth
Talking about how the startup is working towards lowering barriers of access to investment and wealth services for everyone, Karan Shanmugarajah, CEO, WealthKernel, said: “Despite its challenges, the past year has seen our business and sector thrive, demonstrating the increasing demand for investment services from businesses and their customers alike, and the growing shift to digital wealth. The new investment will help us bring our product to a wider audience and expand our platform and help us to achieve our goal of becoming the leading provider of API-based wealth and investment infrastructure across Europe.”
Martyn James, Managing Director, ETFS Capital said: “Democratising access to wealth and investment services is a purpose we understand and respect. Beyond good commercial sense, it is a game changer for the many investors denied access to such services till now.”
Joining the race of companies in the space is London fintech startups such as Ikigai, Propio, MoneyFarm and Scalable.
