Kristal bolsters senior leadership team as it expands into India and the Middle East

New senior appointments will drive Kristal’s expansion into India and the UAE in line with the company’s ambition of being the preferred private wealth platform for affluent investors and wealth managers.

Over the last 12 months, Kristal has seen exponential growth in its revenue and assets under management (AUM), and the new appointments will be instrumental in enabling more investors in India and the Middle East to tap into global investment opportunities.

Ms Aarthi Ramakrishnan, a seasoned investment banker and private investor with over 20 years of experience across several global banks, joins Kristal as Country Head - India and Middle East. In her new role, Ms Ramakrishnan is responsible for driving the growth of Kristal’s B2B2C business in India and the UAE, through partnerships with large institutions, banks and other wealth management firms.

Mr Manmohan Mall, an experienced global investment banker with more than 18 years of experience across asset classes and geographies, has joined Kristal Singapore as Head of Private Markets, a newly established business vertical offering equity/debt investment solutions around early to late stage pre-IPO companies, which will be a key growth driver for the overall business.

With significant management depth and expertise coupled with a rapidly growing business, Kristal’s pursuit of re-imagining private banking experience is gaining validation. The goal that seemed audacious five years ago looks well within reach, with its growing community of affluent investors and wealth managers.

Commenting on the appointments, Asheesh Chanda, Founder & CEO, Kristal, said, “The excitement we see among our clients gives us the confidence that we are solving the right problem with the right partners. Our mission to democratize private banking continues to drive us to bring new products and new experiences to our users. We intend to launch new functionalities to make it easy for wealth managers and banks to offer the best investment experience to their affluent customers. I welcome Aarthi and Manmohan on board to join us on what is certainly the beginning of the most exciting times in our journey.”

Even in a challenging global economic environment of 2020, Kristal has surged ahead with its unique combination of technology and deep understanding of the wealth management space, making this period amongst the best years since its inception in 2016. Its revenue grew 15X and AUM by 3X. The B2B2C or Channel Partner business which it had launched in mid-2020 found early takers. Within a year, it has partnered with more than 50 leading wealth managers and family offices to offer global investments to their HNW clients. Kristal endeavors to bring world class wealth management products and solutions and democratize the access to such products to the broader HNW and mass affluent market. Similarly, Kristal’s Private Markets offering has also seen high inflows and led to significant customer acquisitions since its launch in September 2020.

UAE is the new frontier for Kristal, presenting a large opportunity with more than 100,000 HNW investors. Kristal intends to deliver to them a new private banking experience which is more transparent and personalized with AI-enabled advisory. The investors will be able to access the same institutional products, as those offered by a private bank, but at a much lower investment ticket size. 

Ms Ramakrishnan said, “India and the Middle East are markets that present a very exciting demographic with a burgeoning HNW and mass affluent population, that is getting increasingly technology-enabled and has a significant appetite to access offshore investment opportunities. These clients will now see a revolutionized, highly differentiated platform offering from Kristal, delivered through large institutional partners including banks and wealth managers, which allows them to access best-in-class global investment opportunities. I am delighted to join the Kristal team on this journey to becoming leaders in the WealthTech space.”

Kristal’s Private Markets offering will be a strong enabler to the expansion plans. Mr. Manmohan Mall commented, “The ability to invest and participate in the new age disruptive tech companies globally has been restricted to either larger institutional investors or through unorganized and fragmented investment channels for discerning HNW investors. Kristal, in its endeavor to democratize investments and make high quality assets more easily accessible to all eligible individual investors, has put together a sophisticated, tech-enhanced platform to enable access and generate liquidity on these private company investments. The global network of private companies and shareholders enables effective sourcing of these curated investment opportunities and would bring a strong pipeline of quality deals for savvy investors in the Middle East.”