Fintech in focus: d1g1t | Advisor’s Edge
Co-founder and CEO: Dan Rosen. Born and raised in Mexico, Rosen moved to Canada 33 years ago to study chemical engineering at the University of Toronto, earning both a master’s degree and a doctorate.
“I went from academia straight into making mathematical models in finance and risk. I thought I was going to be an academic all my life, but I was lured into the startup world, Rosen said.
Rosen, a part-time assistant professor of mathematical finance at U of T, was the first director of the Fields Institute’s Center for Financial Industries located at U of T, where d1g1t Inc. was incubated in late 2016.
Financing: d1g1t has raised about $35 million from investors including CI Financial Corp., Purpose Investments Inc., Sagard venture capital arm Portage Ventures, Extreme Venture Partners, Illuminate Financial and MissionOG.
Service: d1g1t offers cloud-based wealth management software with analytics and risk management tools originally developed for institutional investors. The advisor portal allows users to “see everything about their clients or portfolios,” Rosen said, adding that advisors can “look at the entire book of business in one place.” The portal integrates onboarding, know-your-client reviews, investment policy statements, financial and investment planning, portfolio and client reporting and monitoring, portfolio rebalancing, trading and compliance.
The problem it is trying to solve: “When a client comes in and asks a question, there’s very little information that the adviser has to answer the question,” Rosen said of some advice shops. D1g1t software is intended to replace a “patchwork” of legacy systems with one system and an easy-to-use workflow. Many asset management companies’ systems (such as trading, reporting and portfolio analysis) perform specific tasks but in silos, Rosen said.
When a client calls with a question, d1g1t allows the advisor to access all client information on a single platform. Rather than having to set up a meeting at a later date — and spending a lot of time preparing for the meeting by piecing together material from multiple places — the counselor is in a better position to provide an answer right away, Rosen said.
Adoption/partnership in asset management company: More than 60 clients in Canada (including CI Financial, National Bank and Raymond James Correspondent Services) and the United States, with nearly $200 billion in assets under management, use d1g1t’s software. CI Financial uses the technology across its Canadian wealth management operations and has a nearly 10% equity investment in d1g1t.
Pricing: Customized prices according to business license depending on the size and type of company, how many users and book size.
Look for more profiles of fintechs working with wealth management firms.
