The fintech industry is steadily growing, and this year has been no exception. According to Accenture, the first quarter of 2016 saw an increase of 67 percent in global fintech investment, reaching the sum of $5.3 billion. Most of that investment, 62 percent, went to ventures in Asia and Europe. Also, fintech is doing quite well in bringing other technologies into it, such as artificial intelligence (AI).
Fintech & Europe
Europe is, in fact, a hot nest of startups operating in the fintech industry. This is mostly related to the money going into the industry itself, the regulation existing in the European Union, and the amount of accelerators existing there, who are also going in strong on this industry.
Enter Swanest
With offices in London and Brussels, Swanest is taking advantage of this pulsating environment. They have done so well with their online investment service that, recently, the company managed to secure a seed investment round valued at €750,000 (over $800,000), coming from the Belgian early-stage investor Philippe Gillion.
Swanest was founded 2 years ago by four Belgian and Swiss entrepreneurs, Cyril Lequeux (Financial Algorithmics), Nicolas Bindels (Product and Business Development), Silvan Schumacher (Communications), and Youri Tolstoy (IT Systems and Security). The company wanted to create a service for self-directed investors to build and manage their investment portfolios, taking advantage of technology to do so.
A Virtual Investment Assistant
“Do-it-yourself investing” is often hard and takes up a lot of time, because it requires handling complicated online platforms, analyzing several investment possibilities, and much more. In order to make the whole process easier and faster, Swanest goes for a customer-centric approach to investing. They checked the questions that self-directed investors go through, and used automated advices and algorithms to provide guidance.
This is possible with the use of AI, put together in what the company calls “an investment assistant”, which focuses on mid and long-term investment strategies, instead of day-trading and similar. With this, Swanest provides the best of two worlds, robo-advisory and online brokerage, in a service put together with investors that value personalized investment in mind.
Swanest is currently available in a Beta mode, with the team strongly looking for more feedback, so that their solution can respond to what users truly want and need. This service will be available across Europe, and Swanest is currently hiring, so give this page a look to see if you can be a fit.