StashAway is raising $25 million ($33.34 million SGD) in its Series D funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, one of the region’s leading venture capital firms.
StashAway’s existing investors, Eight Roads Ventures, the global investment firm backed by Fidelity International and early investor in Alibaba; and Square Peg, the largest venture capital fund in Australia, also participated in the round. The transaction will close in the next few months pending necessary regulatory approvals.
This funding round will bring StashAway’s total paid-up capital to $84.04million SGD and accelerate investment product and feature developments across its 5 markets. The company will also offer to buy back up to $4 million SGD in stock options from its employees and expand its engineering team in Singapore and abroad.
Michele Ferrario, Co-Founder and CEO says, “This vote of confidence by one of the most successful venture capital firms affirms that we’ve been taking the right approach by expanding early into high-opportunity markets, continuing to deepen our product offering, and building a lean and mission-driven team. These steps have translated into rapid AUM growth since our beginning.”
Abheek Anand, Managing Director, Sequoia India, will be joining StashAway’s Board of Directors as part of the funding round, pending regulatory approvals. Anand has more than 20 years of experience in consumer tech, financial services and deep tech sectors across the US, Southeast Asia and India. He says, “StashAway is growing rapidly as it fulfils an obvious gap in the digital wealth management space, especially in areas where its competitors may be lacking: an easy-to-use platform, robust client relationships, and a very sophisticated investing framework. StashAway has built trust with its client base by navigating them through market volatility while providing strong returns.”
On buying back employee shares and expanding the team, Nino Ulsamer, Co-Founder and CTO adds, “Providing up to $4 million SGD in liquidity to our employees helps StashAway attract the best talent; it shows that startups can succeed and be financially rewarding. We want all of our team members to participate in the financial benefits of building a successful company, and our promise to all team members has always been an attractive compensation package that includes a significant amount of stock options in the company. This promise is now starting to materialise financially.”
