Endowus has closed its latest funding round, raising more than HK$540m ($70m), and reached a record $10bn (HK$78bn) in group client assets.  

This milestone is propelled by growth in Hong Kong, where client numbers have surged 150% and client assets have tripled from a year ago, according to a statement by the Asian independent wealth advisory and investment platform.

The funding round adds a fresh raise of HK$155m to the conversion of existing notes to bring the company’s total funding to over HK$1bn since its inception. It was led by the fintech-focused firm Illuminate Financial, with continued support from existing investors Prosus, Citi Ventures, and leading Asian family offices.

Samuel Rhee, co-founder and chairman of Endowus said: “Wealth management is undergoing a generational transformation driven by demand for aligned advice, greater transparency, and better access to solutions.”

Luca Zorzino, general partner & head of Asia for Illuminate added: “We focus on investing in founders who are addressing structural inefficiencies in financial services. Endowus is doing this by combining transparent pricing with broad fund access, enabling them to tackle long-standing gaps in the way wealth and pensions are managed in Asia.”

“Their fee-only, conflict-free model, together with its status as the first and only digital advisor for pensions in Singapore, represents an important step forward for client-centric wealth management.”

Strong demand in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has been a standout growth market for Endowus, which was founded in 2017. The 150% client growth underscores a rising demand for its transparent, fee-only advisory model.

To support this expansion, the Hong Kong team has doubled in size during the past year. The newly raised capital will be strategically used to invest in deepening its technology edge, leveraging AI, and forays into solutions for external asset managers (EAM) to further accelerate growth in the city, the statement said.

To date, the platform has delivered over HK$7.8bn in net investment gains. A key growth driver has been the expansion into alternative investments. Assets in alternatives, including hedge funds and private markets, grew more than threefold in the past year, surpassing HK$3.9bn. 

A key driver in both Hong Kong and Singapore has been the expansion of Endowus Private Wealth, catering to affluent and high-net-worth clients, with a broader offering of alternatives and private market solutions. The multi-family office business under Carret Private has also seen strong growth over this period.

Endowus’ private market and hedge fund strategies are managed by global managers and through fund of funds access to General Partners (GPs) such as Apollo, Blue Owl, Carlyle, CVC Capital Partners, EQT, Harbourvest, KKR, Macquarie Asset Management, Partners Group and Oaktree.

Endowus has launched a series of portfolios for each asset class, including private credit, private equity and hedge funds, and the firm will soon be launching a private infrastructure portfolio.