Abrdn picks up AI-driven wealth management platform Exo Investing

A few short weeks after Abrdn removed most of the letters from its name (formerly known as Standard Life Aberdeen), the saving and investing giant has now acquired a platform with plenty of letters to spare.

Abrdn has acquired AI-driven wealth management platform Exo Investing from Nucoro for an undisclosed sum.

The deal, which is expected to close later on this year, will see Abrdn launch a 24/7 digital wealth management solution, taking on the likes of Moneybox,Plum and Wealthify.

"Exo was the first of its kind to offer a fully automated wealth management platform, leveraging machine learning to feed into portfolio decision-making,” CEO of Abrdn Stephen Bird said.

"There is a downward pressure on fees, changing customer expectations and increasing regulatory requirements. It is important to address these issues by providing a highly scalable, next-generation service to investors."

Exo Investing offers ETF-based wealth management and, as part of the deal, will help Abrdn to cement its position in the ever-changing digital wealth management sector.

“We built Exo Investing on the Nucoro Platform to fulfil the vision of democratising wealth management by harnessing the power of cutting-edge investment technologies,” Lennart Asshoff, CEO of Nucoro, Exo Investing’s parent company, added.

"Abrdn’s forward-looking digital strategy makes the company both an ideal partner for Nucoro and the ideal home for Exo to drive that vision and use its reach to deliver the proposition to customers.”

The announcement of the deal was nestled into Abrdn’s half-year report published earlier this morning, with the Edinburgh-based firm posting a pre-tax profit of £113m, up from a loss of £498m last year.

Despite the strong start to the year, the firm also saw net outflows hit £5.6bn for the first half of 2021 as assets under management maintained fairly level at £532bn.