Robots 
providing investment advice

– Many small savers keep their investments in funds with a poor return for too long, and many receive bad advice with regard to savings,” says Jan Åge Skaathun, one of the founders of Quantfol.io. 

Provides ongoing advice
“Through machine learning, we use historical data and all available information to find the very best products at any given time. Robots model various investment strategies and can therefore provide a continuous steam of advice about changes you should make in your savings,” says Skaathun.

Service users answer questions about their personal finances, planned duration of the savings and risk profile, for example, and the robot then gives you the best savings solution based on your preferences. It is also possible to give the robots more detailed information, if, for example, you have specific preferences with regard to industries, markets or ethical investments. If your savings start to perform poorly, the robot will suggest moving your money.

“We have carried out a hundred thousand simulations, we will always be able to beat the index,” says Skaathun.

Believes the banks are resisting

Skaathun and his co-founder Helge Hannisdal started to work with the service when they sold the entrepreneurial company It’s learning and needed to invest the proceeds from the sale themselves. 

“We received conflicting advice from asset managers. We thought it had to be possible to get better advice based on the best information available through machine learning,” says Skaathun. 

While piloting the project, Sbanken contacted them and wanted to acquire an interest in Quantfol.io. The two entrepreneurs were faced with a strategic choice of whether they wanted to go forward with a large bank on the partner side.

“The answer was yes. Banks are trusted and have distribution channels, people and large amounts of data. That’s why I strongly believe that banks will survive the attack that will come on the distribution of financial services, whether it comes from Facebook or other giant global stakeholders. There will be limits to how much of our life most of us will be willing to place in the hands of large multinational commercial stakeholders,” says Skaathun. 

Quantfol.io is in discussions with several banks in Northern Europe with regard to offering their products. The criteria we use stipulate that the banks must have a solid digital presence and a broad marketplace for fund savings without their own products.