Why this founder built a blockchain startup for retail investors

Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors in the world, has a personal net worth of US$82 billion, making him the third richest person in the world. He inspired and terrified 23-year-old Smriti Tomar, CEO of wealth management company InvestoAsia, at an inflection point in her life.

Photo credit: Christian Dubovan

When Tomar was an undergraduate studying engineering, she wanted to build a wealth management company that used blockchain technology to help people invest in foreign countries.

However, she had reservations too. Buffett had famously said, “Bitcoin has no unique value at all.” He also did not think too highly of Bitcoin’s underlying technology – blockchain. But the instinct to follow her passion got the better of her. Tomar founded InvestoAsia in late 2018.

Recently, the company was selected by the Hong Kong government to represent India at this year’s HKSTP Elevator Pitch event at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park.

KrAsia spoke with Tomar to learn more about how she set up her company and her future plans.

Why did you set out to build InvestoAsia?

In October 2017, during a student exchange program between India and South Korea, I learned about a student from South Korea, Joon, who wanted to invest in India. When I started to do research to find out how Joon could invest in India, I realized, much to my shock, the road to foreign investment was littered with tedious processes that were difficult for an outside investor to comprehend. There were roadblocks such as hefty trading fees, liquidity risks, long application process times, account opening fees, brokerages, currency risks, and advisory fees, among others.

This hardened my resolve to set up a company that would help others like Joon invest by bridging the gap using blockchain technology. I wanted to build a solution from scratch that was borderless, operational 24/7, highly liquid, easy to join, thematic funds-enabled, and affordable. I worked on that with my team. By November 2018, a digitized securities offering was available through my company, InvestoAsia.

Can you talk about how you set up the company after completing your studies at the National Institute of Technology?

In my late teens, I was trading stocks using my father’s Demat account as I did not have one. And I did well. At this phase, I wanted to help others invest and equip them to build a passive income.

After graduating from NIT, as part of a student exchange program, I went to Korea and stayed there for three months. After returning to India, I got a job with Citibank. Though I was a working professional, I was consumed by the urge to start my own venture to help others invest, and I did a lot of research. I started to learn about blockchain technology too. And then I developed a software application, for which I filed a patent – it covers how to use blockchain in capital markets, investments, securities, and how to trade on blockchain. We incorporate distributed ledger technology, AI, and machine learning into our products and solutions.

What were the challenges that you had to overcome while building the platform?

Between October 2017 and November 2018, I faced regulatory challenges. I liked how people could invest from India to China and vice versa. The stringent rules for foreign portfolio investment, foreign direct investment, and checks on investors were a hassle, and a lot of money was needed to wade through these regulations. It can be hard if you are not a high-net-worth individual.