Douugh to launch wealth management services in the US, stock price shoots up 13pc

Douugh (ASX:DOU) is on its way to launch wealth management services in the US, after being granted a licence by the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).

The AI-based fintech company is now a Registered Investment Adviseor (RIA), which will enable it to offer a range of wealth services to American customers.

With the licence secured, Douugh plans to roll out a number of key products through its Douugh Wealth platform, including managed portfolios, stocks, ETFs, and crypto trading.

The so called “Wealth Jars” platform will include features like Robo Advice and Trading, allowing customers to invest money in custom built portfolios.

This also includes “Stocks Jar”, “Crypto Jar”, and “Retirement Jar” – a complete suite of tools which will enable the company to fulfil its mission of becoming a fully fledged financial platform for tech-savvy millennials.

The new platforms are on track for a full launch in the next couple of months, and follows the successful rollout of Autopilot back in February, the company’s proprietary self driving money management feature.

Further expansion in Australia and overseas

The significant milestone today is a momentum the company says will be the catalyst to accelerate customer growth, and expand its business offering in Australia, and globally. Currently, Douugh only operates in the US.

The company has already begun to make its move in Australia, acquiring ethical investing platform Goodments in January for $1.5 million, which gives it access to 13,000 users with $6,000 each under management.

That acquisition, the company says, is the first step towards carrying out a launch of an integrated banking and wealth platform in the country.

Douugh has been aggressively looking for ways to accelerate the business, signing major partnerships with global players Mastercard and Rakuten.

Douugh’s results

For the last half, Douugh reported a net bottom line loss of $5.4 million, six times bigger than the previous year’s corresponding half. This included a one-off corporate restructuding expense of $3 million.

The company has been in hot water with the ASX over breaches of listing rules, involving its $12 million capital raise and shares issuance which the ASX said should have gone through shareholder approval.

As a result, the Douugh shares were on voluntary suspension since the beginning of January until 4 February, when the company revised and released its corporate governance policy to the exchange.

The company’s share price has been rising by almost 150 per cent over the past twelve months.