Automated wealth services platform Flanks has just closed a Series A investment round, raising $8 million (7.4 million euros). The deal was led by the German firm Earlybird Venture Capital, which specialises in investing in European technology companies.

The round also included investors like JME Ventures and 4Founders Capital, as well as business angels such as Raffaele Terrone, co-founder of Italian fintech unicorn Scalapay, and Martin Kassing, co-founder and CEO of Upvest.

The next big category
Earlybird congratulated open wealth platform Flanks on its LinkedIn profile, describing it as “the next big software category in fintech”. Earlybird also said that Flanks is “poised to unlock [the open wealth segment]”, explaining that, “Flanks is developing the missing infrastructure layer for wealth managers to automate their service offering to their clients end-to-end. The opportunity for open wealth lies in building the foundations for automation and intelligence in the wealth management industry”.

In particular, the Catalan fintech plans to use the new funds to improve its product and continue to innovate by further automating manual processes in the wealth management value chain, from profiling and reporting to investment memoranda. Algorithms will also be added for smart alerts and investment decisions.

Innovative tools
Flanks' approach is to provide innovative tools for wealth managers, asset managers and advisors, including banks, family wealth managers, asset managers and financial advisors. Created in 2019 and based in Barcelona, the company has succeeded in quadrupling its revenues in the past twelve months. With a presence in ten countries, another of its objectives is to continue taking steps on the path to international expansion.

Tim Rehder, Partner at Earlybird, said, “The open wealth opportunity is laying the foundations for automation and intelligence in the wealth management industry. Flanks is perfectly positioned to become the de facto standard for a number of B2B partners who transact with implied customer data. We were impressed by the current impact that Flanks has on its customers, as well as by the founders’ deep industry knowledge, technical depth, and vision".

Accelerating the disruption process
Flanks CEO Joaquim de la Cruz explained, “This round of funding will enable Flanks to accelerate the disruption process that is already underway in the wealth management industry. We have an exceptional team, and are excited about the opportunities that the future holds.

Flanks' Chief Strategy Officer and former Global Head of Private Banking at Banco Santander, Álvaro Morales, added, “Up until now, many financial advisors did their job without knowing their clients' global asset allocation. The forthcoming MiFID III regulation is likely to require more detailed attention to an investor's pre-existing wealth before giving financial advice. The technology offered by Flanks, powered by this funding round, will transform the interaction between financial advisors and customers”.

^{Photo: Flanks}