StashAway's Singapore operations turn Ebitda positive in FY2024
[SINGAPORE] Wealth platform StashAway's Singapore market has turned earnings before tax, interest, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) positive in FY2024 ending Dec 31.
On a group level across Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Hong Kong and Thailand, Ebitda loss narrowed to S$5.3 million for 2024 from S$8 million in 2023. Revenue for 2024 jumped 36 per cent to S$14.8 million, from S$10.9 million in 2023.
Michele Ferrario, co-founder and chief executive officer of StashAway, said: 'This growth has been driven by mostly current customers continuing to invest with us.'
StashAway's main market – Singapore – was the key driver for revenue growth, jumping 44.9 per cent to S$11.3 million in 2024 from S$7.8 million in 2023. Costs for Singapore's operations dipped slightly to S$15.1 million in 2024 from S$15.7 million in 2023.
In particular, marketing expenses only inched up to S$843,338 in 2024 in Singapore, compared to S$785,970 in 2023, underscoring that growth was from existing customers rather than new customers. At the group level, marketing costs edged up from S$1.1 million in 2023 to S$1.5 million in 2024.
This has resulted in StashAway's Singapore operations being Ebitda positive with S$1.4 million in 2024, from a loss of S$1.8 million in 2023.
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What has been key to getting existing customers to invest more is the new products introduced over the last three years, from Simple Guaranteed, which finds the best fixed deposit rate to Income Investing, a fixed income product. The alternatives offerings such as private credit, private equity, venture capital, angel investing and private infrastructure have also aided in driving up customers' assets under management.
Ferrario said that the combination has helped clients invest 'more of their wealth' with the company.
While the new alternatives offerings were solely catered for high-net-worth individuals (HNWI), these offerings did not see as much growth from HNWIs as the core portfolio offerings. Still, the launch of these alternatives did attract more HNWIs to invest more with StashAway, he added.
Turning Ebitda positive in Singapore shows that the company can grow revenue without significantly growing costs. For a 36 per cent jump in 2024 revenue, transaction and operating costs grew 25 per cent to S$2 millon in 2024 from S$1.6 million in 2023.
The CEO said: 'In our case we also have a tech-first approach, so there is the leverage of classic asset management business with the operational leverage of a technology firm.'
StashAway was always on the path of turning Ebitda positive in Singapore, being part of the budget of last year, he said. The unit economics work, and coupled with discipline on managing the cost base, it has become just a question of growth.
Currently, there is no hard timeline to reach profitability, as Ferrario wants StashAway to be nimble in meeting changes. When the company reaches profitability will depend on its decisions on growth and how much it spends to grow.
As the company invests in the smaller markets, the journey to profitability has been slower, he said. Inorganic growth is also not being ruled out, with the wealth platform open to opportunities. There were previous opportunities in the past but StashAway ultimately decided not to follow through.
Any acquisition will need to make strategic and financial sense, especially as a way to get to where the company wants to be faster.
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