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ReportStashAway to close US$25 million Series D round to support growth strategy

StashAway to close US$25 million Series D round to support growth strategy

StashAway, one of the first digital wealth managers to be regulated in Singapore and Malaysia, is raising US$25 million in a Series D funding round to finance product development across five markets and strengthen its engineering team.

The online investment platform, headquartered in Singapore, has achieved notable milestones since its launch in 2016. In 2017, it secured a capital markets license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore; in 2018, it obtained a digital investment management license from Securities Commission Malaysia; in 2020, it received regulatory approval from Dubai Financial Services Authority to service the MENA region; and in January 2021, the firm broke the US$1 billion assets under management (AuM) threshold.

While the start-up started in the conventional space, the robo-advisor expanded its investment offering to include a Shariah compliant portfolio known as StashAway Simple.

The latest funding round, led by Sequoia Capital India, is expected to close over the next few months pending regulatory approvals. This exercise, which is also participated by StashAway’s existing investors Eight Road Ventures (the venture capital arm of Fidelity) and Australia’s Square Peg, will bring the start-up’s total paid-up capital to US$61.4 million.

As part of the funding round, Abheek Anand, the managing director of Sequoia India and a veteran tech professional, will be joining StashAway as a board director.

“This vote of confidence by one of the most successful venture capital firms affirms that we’ve been taking the right approach by expanding early into high-opportunity markets, continuing to deepen our product offering and building a lean and mission-driven team. These steps have translated into rapid AuM growth since our beginning,” Michele Ferrario, the firm’s co-founder and CEO, said.

Aside from accelerating product developments, the firm will also offer to buy back up to US$3 million in stock options from its employees and expand its engineering team in Singapore and abroad.

“Providing up to US$3 million in liquidity to our employees helps StashAway attract the best talent; it shows that start-ups can succeed and be financially rewarding. We want all of our team members to participate in the financial benefits of building a successful company, and our promise to all team members has always been an attractive compensation package that includes a significant amount of stock options in the company. This promise is now starting to materialize financially,” shared Nino Ulsamer, the co-founder and chief technology officer at StashAway.

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