Polaris to roll out robo-advisory service to Asia’s financial firms, backed by Richard Li’s FWD unit

Rising demand for highly automated wealth management services from traditional financial institutions has put mainland Chinese start-up Polaris, a specialist provider of robo-advisory systems, on the fast track to steady domestic and international expansion, according to its chief executive.

“We have a unique position in the market as a business-to-business robo-advisory solutions company,” Polaris chief executive Zheng Yudong told the South China Morning Post.

“We’re definitely looking beyond Singapore with FWD,” he said. “The natural markets we can next expand to include, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and even the Middle East.”

The ambitious development strategy of Polaris, a unit of Beijing-based Pintec Group, reflects the massive strides made by companies on the mainland to dominate fintech development, following the rapid growth of its e-commerce sector.