Japanese robo-advisor WealthNavi banks $37.6m in series D round

Japanese financial robo-advisor WealthNavi bagged about US$37.6 million in a series D funding round led by a limited partnership established by existing investors Sony Financial Ventures and Global Brain.

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Opt Ventures, SMBC Venture Capital, DBJ Capital, and Resona Capital, among others, also participated in the round, which brought WealthNavi’s total funding to around US$135.8 million to date.

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Photo credit: Japanexperterna.se

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The company looks to use the new funds to further develop its platform, expand its management team, and invest in marketing.

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Headquartered in Tokyo, WealthNavi offers a platform for asset managers who use risk management algorithms to provide asset management advice. It also has advanced functions such as automatic tax optimization and portfolio rebalancing.

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The company claims to have reached about 240,000 applications and have roughly US$1.65 billion in assets under custody since its launch in July 2016.

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Prior to its series D round, the company raised US$41.2 million in series C funding in 2018. The Mirai Creation Fund-led round saw participation from SMBC Venture Capital and Infinity Ventures.

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According to Statista, assets under management in Japan’s robo-advisory segment amount to US$4.35 billion this year, and that number is expected to increase to US$9.72 billion by 2023. There is also an estimated 255,000 users of robo-advisors in the country – a number that’s expected to jump to 429,000 by 2023.

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One of WealthNavi’s competitors in the space is Raku-Wrap, a service offered by local ecommerce and online retailing giant Rakuten. Japan’s Shizuoka Bank also launched its own robo-advisory service for discretionary investment management, partnering with asset management solutions provider Monex-Saison-Vanguard Investment Partners.