Moneyfarm is set to foray into the German market through the acquisition of digital wealth manager vaamo for an undisclosed price.
Image: Thomas Bloch of German digital wealth manager vaamo and Giovanni Daprà of Moneyfarm. Photo: courtesy of MFM INVESTMENT Ltd.
Through its launch in 2014, vaamo became the first digital wealth manager in Germany.
Germany is the third market where Moneyfarm will have a presence in addition to Italy and the UK.
The company believes that the acquisition of vaamo enables it to make use of the latter’s strong foothold in the German market to fast track its entry into the country.
The online investment advisor said that it investment services combined with vaamo’s base in the German market will allow it to offer more customized and new investment advice solutions in Europe.
Moneyfarm CEO and co-founder Giovanni Daprà said: “vaamo’s strong foothold in the German market and established B2B offering made them an attractive acquisition to further cement our position as a pan-European investment provider.
“Their shared preference for providing regulated investment advice, over an execution-only service, is in line with our investment ethos and was a key consideration in the process.”
vaamo, which was set up by Thomas Bloch and Oliver Vins, provides regulated fully-managed discretionary portfolios.
According to Moneyfarm, in the last four years, vaamo has built a direct to consumer and B2B offering. The German digital wealth manager had forged partnerships with digital bank N26, and 1822direkt, the online business of German saving bank Helaba among others.
The deal also gives scope for Moneyfarm to grow its business proposition in Europe for firms and financial institutions looking to provide digital investment advice on fully-managed portfolios to their employees or customers.
Post acquisition, both the firms will continue to cater to their individual customer bases with vaamo to retain its brand name.
Vaamo co-founder and co-CEO Thomas Bloch said: “Moneyfarm’s acquisition of vaamo marks an exciting new phase of growth for both companies, as we look to combine our European experiences to provide more personalised and innovative investment advice solutions internationally.”
The closing of the deal will be based on regulatory approval from Germany’s BaFin.
In May 2018, Moneyfarm raised £40m through a series B financing round led by Allianz Asset Management.