WealthNavi raises $15m and gains access to 6.2 million customers
Japanese robo-adviser WealthNavi has raised Yen 1.5bn ($15m) in a series B funding round. The start-up is also partnering with SBI Securities and Sumishin SBI Net Bank, whose parent participated in the funding round, giving it access to 2.6 million online banking customers and 3.6 million stock trading customers. The firm, founded by Kazuhisa Shibayma, a former deputy director at the Ministry of Finance and McKinsey employee, launched its service in July 2016, targeting middle-income investors. 

Tokyo based fintech asset management firm WealthNavi has raised more funding, but equally valuable it has gained access to a pool of over six million potential clients.

WealthNavi offers a cloud-based robo-advisory service assisting middle-income investors to locate diversified investments internationally. The service was officially launched in July 2016.

Among companies who took part in the latest round of fund raising were SBI Holdings, SBI Investment, Mizuho Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, DBJ Capital, and Infinity Venture Partners.

This latest tranche of funding means that the company has now fundraised a total of 2.1 billion JPY since the company’s launch in April of 2015, with support from current and ex-partners of McKinsey & Company and other angel investors.

Huge Base of Potential Clients

CEO and founder Kazuhisa Shibayama previously worked at McKinsey and was also a Deputy Director at the Ministry of Finance, Japan.

But perhaps of more interest is the fact that WealthNavi has partnered with SBI securities and Sumishin SBI Net Bank, both of which are subsidiaries of SBI Holdings, to offer the robo-advisory service to SBI’s 2.6 million online banking customers and to 3.6 million stock trading customers.

SBI Group has been helping regional banks and credit unions nationwide in Japan, who do not have the technical resources of the large banks, to adopt financial technology services.