Walmart-owned PhonePe is acquiring two wealth management companies WealthDesk and OpenQ.
While the company did not disclose the deal value, a source close to the development told BusinessLine that the collective value of the acquisitions is around $75 million and the deals are a mix of cash and stock. WealthDesk is estimated to be valued around $50 million and OpenQ’s valuation is somewhere around $20 million.
The founder and the entire team of WealthDesk will be working as a part of the PhonePe group and both the platforms will remain independent. WealthDesk will continue to remain an open platform for all players, and the founder Ujjwal Jain will be leading the company.
“WealthDesk currently has over 50 partners across categories already working with them and we expect their platform to scale further by integrating with more partners and to become a gold standard for investment technology,” said a PhonePe spokesperson.
Interoperability
WealthDesk’s vision is to create an internet scale investment technology ecosystem by building the United Wealth Interface (UWI) for Asset and Wealth Management ecosystem on top of broking/transactional platforms in India.
The interoperability offered by WealthDesk’s platform offerings is said to allow all ecosystem stakeholders such as brokers, AMCs, Investment Advisors, Research firms, etc, to integrate with each other, and push investment products innovation.
Further, OpenQ is a smart beta wealth management platform that designs investment strategies and optimal portfolio construction advice. “Post acquisition, OpenQ will be instrumental in creating the Wealth Ecosystem for the PhonePe Group,” the spokesperson added. The deal is subject to necessary regulatory approvals.