February 5, 2018
WealthNavi, provider of Japan’s biggest financial robo-adviser service, has raised fresh funds from Mirai Creation Investment Limited Partnership (Mirai Creation Fund) to further develop and improve its robo-adviser and asset management application.
In a disclosure to the JASDAQ Securities Exchange on Monday, Sparx Group Co, operator and co-founder of Mirai Creation Fund, said the fund has executed a new investment in WealthNavi, which offers a robo-adviser that conducts full automated asset management, particularly focused on long-term, accumulation and diversification.
Founded in 2015, WealthNavi has opened 70,000 accounts with assets under management of ¥60 billion as of 24 January 2018. The amount of the latest investment was not disclosed.
“Using this capital, WealthNavi is going to develop new features and improve existing features of its robo-adviser, WealthNavi, and the small-change asset management application, Mametasu, to engage in marketing and promotional activities, and to secure the talent necessary to carry out these initiatives,” Sparx said.
Mirai Creation Fund targets investment in enterprises and projects that possess innovative technologies in the core fields of Al, robotics, and technologies to enable a hydrogen-based society, as well as other related projects.
The fund began its operations in November 2015 with Sparx as an operator, with investment of ¥13.5 billion ($123 million) by Toyota Motor Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Sparx.
At the end of September 2017, 20 companies have invested in the fund with its AUM reaching ¥36.7 billion. The fund has been investing in about 30 companies, in US, UK, Israel and Japan.
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