Wealthtech Flourishes in Switzerland

A new generation of fintech companies is building digital solutions to transform the investment and asset management industry. Often referred to as "wealthtech" companies, these use artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to offer advice, and provide low-cost alternatives with micro-investment platforms and trading solutions based on social networks. Wealthtech reached a record of 74 financing agreements worth US$657 million in 2016 and has been growing steadily for the past five years, according to data from CB Insights. And while robo-advisors (automated services that use machine-learning algorithms to offer personalized users advice) are by far the best-known product in the field, there are many new ideas emerging that seek to improve the investment industry through technology. Robo-retirements, for instance, are robo-advisors that specialize in managing retirement savings.