✅ Apex Is Rocking Their Earnings
Our first newsbite today covers some good news about Apex. Apex FinTech Solutions reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2021. The company witnessed massive client growth, to the tune of 85 percent. Putting its total users at 14.4 million. And its trade growth increased by 183 percent, bringing the total to $235.5 million. More impressively, Apex also reported a net revenue of $145.9 million and a net income growth of 414 percent. As CEO Bill Capuzzi explained, “The financial industry is in the early innings of a massive digital transformation and our record quarterly results demonstrate that Apex is at the center of this transformation.” This exceptional growth that Apex is experiencing is also paired with some additional news. The company has recently announced a highly anticipated merger with Northern Star Investment Corporation II. Together, they will be bringing Apex to the NYSE under the ticker symbol APX. As the company prepares its revenue reports, investors are readying themselves for the public offering.
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✅ The Future Of Robo Advice
Our next article discusses the importance of AI-based robo investing within Asia’s wealth tech market. Major banks throughout the region are currently collaborating with digital wealth solution providers to create user-friendly, scalable products focused on wealth management. The $1.5 trillion dollars global robo-investing industry is expected to grow to $2.5 trillion by 2025. Currently, America holds $1 trillion of the wealth tech sector, with Asia holding $0.3 trillion as the second-largest consumer of digital robo-advising products. While robo-investing may only account for 1 percent of the market share in Asia today, companies are working to change that. This increase in innovation has led to success stories arising in the region. Top firms include StashAway, Syfe, and RoboWealth.
Surprisingly, many of these firms were able to make leeway into the industry through lower customer acquisition costs than what they would have had in the United States. While real estate still remains the most popular long-term investment (tool) in Asia, interest in investment in the wealth tech industry is on the rise. Several CEOs have credited their success to market segmentation as well as a deeper emphasis on research and development. Aqumon CEO Kelvin Lei noted that consumer apps are growing at a rate of 400 percent per year. The demand for app-based services led Lei to create a new AI-based advisor to his customer base. The goal for 2021 is to see the B2C-focused app receive over 500,000 downloads. We are excited to follow these companies and it’s clear the entire region will be undergoing major disruption thanks to the new tech.
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✅ AI Assistants In The Wealth Market
Rounding out our trio of newsbites are some fascinating updates from CogniCor. CogniCor is one of the leading AI-based firms working to improve wealth management firm operations worldwide. As part of their goals, the venture capital-backed company recently unveiled three different AI-backed personal assistants. Though the assistants aren’t human, they are able to streamline many of the issues that firms face when it comes to customer service. Each of the assistants was created through the CIRA platform, which uses machine learning systems to better predict the needs of clients. The assistants include a navigation assistant, a smart call routing assistant, and a forms assistant. So far, the results from the tests are impressive.
CogniCor’s assistants yielded a 25 percent reduction in support calls, an 80 per cent first-call resolution rate, as well as reduced time spent on easily-automated issues. Does this mean that CogniCor will eliminate the need for live help? Not quite. The firm makes it very clear that their assistants are there to help with free time for more pressing matters in the office. Should the assistants become popular, it is very likely that we will see wealthy firms increase their profits significantly over the next year.
