WealthBar Financial Services Inc., a Vancouver-based robo-advisor, has raised $5.5 million in financing, which will be put toward the creation of new service offerings including a platform that financial advisors and financial services firms could use with their own clients.
Nicola Wealth Management, also of Vancouver, led this round of financing, which includes an investment by Howard Atkinson, former president of Toronto-based Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc, who was appointed to WealthBar’s board of advisors in November 2015.
Atkinson calls WealthBar the “future of investing” in a statement released Tuesday.
“Not only are they providing a service that will truly help Canadians, they’re doing it in a way that no other digital wealth manager is doing it — by connecting clients with a dedicated online advisor,” he says. “The level of service and value WealthBar is providing to clients is, to my knowledge, unmatched by any other Canadian investment firm.”
WealthBar provides a service in which a dedicated online advisor is made available to each client and will coach that client through the development of a financial plan, in addition to the creation of a portfolio of exchange-traded funds, according to the robo-advisor’s announcement.
John Nicola, chairman and CEO of Nicola Wealth Management, also lauded WealthBar’s technologies in a statement.
“We hope this partnership will not only bring better experience in investing for Canadians but look forward to bringing WealthBar’s unique technologies to firms like our own,” he says.
Tea Nicola, WealthBar’s CEO and co-founder, believes that a growing number of Canadians will turn to these online investment management companies to take advantage of the lower-fee options for which robo-advisors are known.
“We’ve come a long way in the last year and a half, and are just starting to see the beginning of what looks like a massive change in how Canadians will invest in their futures,” she says in a statement. “The future looks overwhelmingly positive for the financial tech industry, both for our clients and the companies savvy enough to develop the technology to make it happen.”
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