Get to know Kelvin Lei of Aqumon as he talks wealth management, key investment trends and the best advice he has ever received
As the former vice president at Deutsche Bank Hong Kong, Kelvin Lei is well versed in matters of money. After leaving the corporate world behind in 2015, Lei took his years of experience in banking and finance and set out on his own with one goal in mind: to empower those “underserved by traditional private banks” by bringing the power of investing into the hands of everyday people.
The Wuxi-born entrepreneur, along with his friend, financial mathematics professor Don Huang, co-founded Aqumon in 2015. They created a full-service wealth management app with robo-advisory—algorithm-based investment advice—to make investing easy and accessible to all. Despite having no office and no funding initially, the duo set up shop at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) library, developing algorithms and fundraising strategy before officially launching the app in 2018. Today, the fintech company has more than 100,000 registered users, lists heavy-hitters like Alibaba’s Entrepreneurs Fund, Lenovo and HKUST as shareholders, and last year won the eDigest award for Best SME Business.
The father of two talks to Tatler about key trends in wealth management, why saving is not enough and his biggest career failure to date.
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How did you come up with this app?
Finance was a path I always knew I’d be on since I left university. My career led me through different posts in renowned banks and I ended up in the fixed income and sales and trading team at Deutsche Bank. It was a very lucrative business until the financial crisis. That was when I realised the banking industry’s policies were not always in the interest of the clients. In fact, I personally found it very difficult to invest in other products as a retail investor. That was when I realised there’s a market for digital, algo-driven wealth management products. I wanted to create a way for anyone to invest.
What is the goal of the app? And how does it benefit the consumer?
Traditional wealth management advice is offered exclusively to the wealthy and privileged few. We want to make investments simple, affordable, transparent and accessible to everyone. Our mission is to transform the financial industry by empowering people to participate in wealth creation and bring about real social progress.
What kind of services do you provide?
Aqumon has three different business lines: robo-advisory services for retail clients, asset management for professional investors, and institutional WealthTech solutions. Aqumon has partnered with more than 100 financial institutions in Hong Kong, mainland China and overseas, ranging from banks, securities houses and asset managers.
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