Meet Karan Shanmugarajah, co-founder of WealthKernel

Karan Shanmugarajah is CEO and co-founder of WealthKernel. Founded in 2015 WealthKernel is a technology firm providing the building blocks for a better and more accessible wealth management industry. By providing easily-integratable technology with regulatory backing, WealthKernel is helping businesses and fintechs launch wealth and investment products to market quickly, giving people better access to the investment space.

Tell us about your background and experience prior to launching your business?

Before WealthKernel, I worked as a Portfolio Manager at Barclays in London overseeing $500 million in client assets. Prior to that, I had a career as an analyst in the financial sector in Singapore and Canada. 

Alongside a career in finance, I also obtained an MSc in International Accounting and Finance from CASS Business School. In 2012 I founded a not-for-profit organisation focusing on supporting the Tamil community in London with networking, entrepreneurial, and growth opportunities. In many ways, this passion for improving representation has been instilled in the very foundations of WealthKernel and has seen us powering fintechs that are making wealth more accessible for the underserved communities. 

What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?

We founded WealthKernel after realising that wealth infrastructure at the time was either poorly designed or not built to meet the needs of a digitised world. On top of this, legacy wealth businesses have typically been built to support investors with significant amounts of money to save or invest.

Because of this, we were driven to improve and open up access to investing infrastructure to companies that wanted to build great products and help everybody easily invest their money.

Ultimately, we wanted to harness the power of technology to disrupt a space that has been relatively exclusive for too long.

How did you fund the business in the early stages?

In 2017 we raised an initial seed investment of $1m led by Seedcamp - a European seed fund which recognises and invests in founders breaking into a global market. The investment round was also backed by London Co-Investment fund - a London-based venture firm which invests in technology businesses.

We secured a further £4.5million in Series A funding from ETFS Capital, which helped us  develop our product functionality and expand our client base. We’ve also raised an additional £5m funding from XTX Ventures earlier this year, which will support us as we look to expand into European markets. 

What does your business offer its target audience?

WealthKernel provides the building blocks to power any digital investing offering, empowering a better, more accessible wealth and investment industry.

We provide easily-embedded investment infrastructure, over API, for companies looking to offer digital wealth and investment services. From Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) to General Investing Accounts (GIAs) and Self-Invested Pension Plans (SIPP) - we help customers quickly and easily launch financial products for retail clients. We also custody millions of pounds on behalf of our clients.

Our goal is to pioneer industry-leading vertically integrated infrastructure that makes investing easy by allowing businesses to build and offer investment functionality in flexible, cost-effective, and creative ways. 

How do you set yourself apart from other businesses in your industry?

What sets us apart is how we are breaking down the barriers of entry to wealth and investment services. Historically, the industry has generally been catered to the select few who can afford high-value investment products or advice. Our technology is changing this, giving everyday people access to reliable and cost-effective vital investment products. Our infrastructure is built to serve everyday needs.

What plans do you have for WealthKernel over the next two years?

Our recent Series A+ funding round has provided us with the capital to expand our business in Europe, which will be our first priority. We’re also going to be expanding our investing infrastructure to offer intraday trading, as well as recruiting new talent to bolster the WealthKernel team.

Any new product launches we should know about?

We recently launched our digital SIPPs functionality that allows fintechs to efficiently offer pensions to their clients. We’ve also partnered with ClearBank, to enable instant matching deposits for our clients and their customers. This new integration removes the waiting time for payments to clear, allowing investors to trade instantly with their funds. 

Why do you think your business has had such a positive impact across your industry?

WealthKernel is bringing the wealth and investment industry into the digital age, helping incumbents innovate their infrastructure while encouraging fintechs to launch exciting new offerings. The simplicity of our products means that businesses can focus on improving their customer experience, and iterating their product, without the need to build costly infrastructure in-house.

What advice would you give to early-stage founders wanting to harness the power of technology to create a positive impact?

It’s important to understand the problem you’re trying to solve, and who it impacts before even thinking about technology. At WealthKernel, we knew from the start that we wanted to make wealth infrastructure more accessible, but we had to understand our target customers and the challenges they faced before building the product around these. Technology is certainly an enabler, but if your innovation isn’t rooted in an informed understanding of the problem, you’ll be firing shots into the dark.

How do you believe the evolution of tech will impact your industry over the next ten years?

Over the next decade, I anticipate we will see wealth and investment technology increasingly embedded into the products and services we use every day. Just as embedded finance has enabled us to easily pay for products and services, secure lending or apply for insurance at the point of sale, embedded wealth could see us investing our money into a portfolio at the press of a button. 

The increase of wealth and investment apps in recent years has demonstrated a growing number of people wanting to put their money to work, and we can only expect this trend to continue as they realise the benefits.