German insurance giant Allianz has shown its commitment to the emerging fintech sector by swooping for a minority stake in digital wealth manager MoneyFarm.
Founded in Milan in 2011, MoneyFarm offers its users low-cost wealth management services and is one of several robo advisors that have emerged in recent years to help people both with the investment and management of their money.
Speaking to
Business Insider, MoneyFarm’s co-founder and chairman Paolo Galvani outlined how the insurer made an approach to the firm at a recent conference.
“For them, it is to understand the dynamics of a digital play,” he told the publication.
“Sometimes innovation for large institutions is tricky to generate. They can run a parallel approach where on the one side they have their own internal innovation but on the other side understand from a smaller player who is more dynamic. It’s a very good way to invest in research and development to understand how digital will affect financial services.”
Allianz has reportedly been attempting to increase its fintech footprint in an effort to ensure its rivals do not gain a technological edge. Among its recent efforts has been the set-up of an innovation lab in Asia; as well as the establishment of company builder Allianz X which aims to globally scale new business models in the insurtech space.
Galvani went on to describe the insurer as “very, very smart” in the way in which it has approached fintech and innovation and noted that there has been a wealth of interest from serious large players in the market in recent months suggesting that big companies are starting to take the area a little more seriously.
MoneyFarm launched in the UK earlier this year and the company now has 80,000 customers across both the UK and its native Italy.
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