Netwealth buys stake in fintech provider, signals expansion

Netwealth declared the deal on Thursday, signalling it has bought an initial 25 per cent stake in Xeppo, with the option to increase its investment in the fintech vendor to 50 per cent.

Xeppo specialises in developing data solutions for the wealth management, accounting and mortgage industries.

In conjunction with the tech company, Netwealth has plans to expand its current integrations to support two-way data feeds between financial planning software such as Iress and Midwinter, accounting systems such as a Xero and MYOB, and SMSF software such as BGL and Class.

Netwealth has completed research finding advice firms on average use between 12 and 15 technology systems in their businesses. The company’s joint managing director Matt Heine said the systems would tend to all have “different data models, significant data discrepancies and often overlap from a features perspective”.

“For example, the Netwealth platform captures customer details as does an advice firm’s CRM, planning software, fact find and client portal,” Mr Heine said.

“Working closely with Xeppo we can solve this challenge and enable systems to better connect and integrate with each other driving business efficiency and great client experiences.”

Xeppo chief executive Paul Campbell added, “Netwealth is a growing business with a focus on technology innovation and client service – it made perfect sense to partner with them.

“Importantly, we share a similar philosophy on the importance of customer data and the role advice tech plays in lowering the cost to service clients and improve the overall client experience.”