New VCC Structure Footholds First Time Investors
Kristal.AI launches a Digital Family Office in Singapore, offering a new VCC structure that targets high-net-worth, first-time investors, and the underserved mass affluent investor segment in the range of SGD50,000 to SGD 5 Million.
The MAS-licensed wealth manager’s digital platform will technologically disrupt the way investors domicile and manage their wealth in Singapore
Kristal.AI, a digital private wealth management platform that says it caters to under-served investors, has launched a new digital family office in Singapore.
Kristal.AI Founder and CEO Asheesh Chanda says having a presence in Singapore will allow it to efficiently address dynamic wealth and legacy requirements of its clients. Chanda says the family office solution will focus on enabling investors to recognise the importance of legacy planning, efficient structuring through consolidation of assets under appropriate holding vehicles and wealth preservation and growth.
To complement its family office solution, Kristal.AI has also launched a Singapore Variable Capital Company (VCC).
Chanda says the VCC presents a unique opportunity for Kristal.AI to streamline its offering to its clients, including single-family offices, wealth managers and individual investors. It also enables investors to tap into Singapore’s thriving investment ecosystem.
“Kristal.AI is disrupting the way domestic and foreign investors domicile and manage their wealth – by not only democratising the family office and VCC propositions but by also delivering it digitally. The digital delivery makes it more convenient for investors to leverage the efficiency of Kristal.AI’s digital platform and enjoy a leaner cost structure,” says Chanda.
According to Chanda, the number of high-net-worth individuals, specifically first-generation wealth creators, are on the rise.
“Many of them are seeking to tap into Asia’s booming investment landscape, of which Singapore sits at the very heart of. With our new Digital Family Office Solution and VCC structure, we can provide investors with a more strategic and flexible way to manage their assets while connecting them to the greater regional market. As a wealth manager for the digital era, we can also give them the sort of sophistication, transparency and efficiency that only a digital-first platform can provide,” says Chanda.
Kristal.AI VCC has been incorporated as an umbrella entity with multiple sub-funds, each one housing in-house funds, independent investment strategies and single-family office portfolios.
The VCC launched its first sub-fund into which it is currently transferring the Kristal Founders Fund (erstwhile Carry++), a global macro hedge fund that claims to generate returns through model-driven investments as well as tactical trades across rates, credit, equity, volatility, and crypto markets. Chanda claims that transferring the Kristal Founders Fund into the VCC will institutionalise the offering and provide for a more seamless execution.
Kristal.AI says its currently structuring a Secondaries Fund that will invest in pre-IPO companies and will move that into another sub-fund later this year.
“Clients can choose to consolidate their assets via a variety of corporate vehicles such as private limited companies, limited partnerships, and private limited partnerships, they can also choose to leverage the firm’s VCC structure as an alternative to the conventional structures. By launching multiple such customisable sub-funds, the Kristal.AI VCC is able to achieve economies of scale and provide investors a more cost-efficient and transparent pricing grid. Investors with illiquid or private investments could also access Kristal’s pool of investors for liquidity solutions to their holdings,” says Chanda.
The Singapore VCC was launched in January 2020 as a new corporate structure to provide the Singapore wealth and fund management industry with a more robust and comprehensive fund framework. It can cater to a wide range of investment strategies – both traditional and alternative – and can be used for either open or close-ended investment strategies.
It allows for segregation of assets and liabilities which means assets and liabilities can be clearly separated and ring-fenced. Investors also get to strategically leverage Singapore’s world-class financial services infrastructure as well as its stable and investment-friendly business ecosystem.
(Ed. A VCC must be managed by a fund manager which is a licensed fund management company. Chanda says Kristal.AI is a holder of a CMS license from the MAS. Featured image by Photographer mentatdgt.)
