The robo revolution

OW Tai Zhi, co-founder and chief investment officer of AutoWealth, was working for a family office in 2013 when a friend walked in, plonked a S$200,000 cheque on his table, and asked him to invest his money. "I'd been helping rich people get richer," Mr Ow says. "A lot of friends and family around me kept saying: 'Help us, we are the people who deserve more help'." Out of that formative experience grew the realisation that perhaps there was something revolutionary he could bring to the asset management table. There was already a high level of frustration directed against capitalism's standard-bearers: the fund managers who invest our money in unit trusts, the banks and insurers who take a hefty cut for distributing these products, and the wealth advisers who require high minimums. The solution, for forward-thinkers like Mr Ow, was software.