As the developer of digital wealth management platform Aqumon, Magnum Research will funnel the funding towards bolstering its market position in Hong Kong and Asia.
Hong Kong-based Magnum Research Limited, the company behind digital wealth management platform Aqumon, has closed a follow-on pre-Series B round at US$30 million (HK$233 million), the company announced in a statement today.
Zheng He Capital Management led the round, with participation from Lenovo Capital, Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, the Wing Lung Family Office, and Hong Kong government’s digital initiative Cyberport, the statement noted.
This is the largest funding round within the digital wealth management space in Asia this year, the company also said.
Magnum Research Limited was founded in 2016 in a Hong Kong University of Science & Technology incubator. The company is licensed under Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission and provides robo-advisory and digital wealth management solutions via Aqumon.
The company will utilize the funding towards strengthening its market position as a digital wealth management platform in the Greater Bay area, drive up R&D spends especially on software engineering and AI investment research, and grow its offerings to include thematic stock portfolios and alpha seeking investment strategies.
“We are based in Hong Kong and will continue to expand to other Asian countries, where we hope to launch our Robo Advisory services,” CEO of Aqumon Kelvin Lei added in the statement.
“Aqumon’s progress in the past five years have attested to the growth of the fintech industry in Hong Kong,” Lei also said.
The statement noted that Aqumon has seen over 300% growth as compared to 2019 across app downloads, account openings and fund injections. The company attributes this to the app’s digital nature and its investment methodology’s transparency.
Moreover, with a drop in offline business for insurance companies, banks and security houses, and increased adoption of cloud-based technology by financial institutions, the company noted that demand for its digital wealth management solutions surged.
Aqumon has partnered with over 70 financial institutions in Asia, reaching over 10 million users. Its clients include CMB Wing Lung Bank, AIA Hong Kong, Bank of China International, Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank, China Resources Bank, and ChinaAMC.
The company had previously raised a Series A round led by Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund in 2017, followed by a Series A1 round in the next year, according to Pitchbook data. It also raised a pre-Series B funding round in May this year.
“Combining its financial expertise and AI techniques, Aqumon is poised to propel the industry into a new phase of automation and democratization,” CEO of Lenovo Capital George He said in the statement.
Wealth in Asia is expected to cross $58 trillion by 2024 at the highest rate of regional growth across the world. Yet, fintech solutions such as digital wealth management are only just catching up in the region, even as it contends with large swathes of un- or under-banked populations.
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