Meet Zinvest, A New Take On Self-Directed, Passive Portfolio Management

Benzinga, a leading news and data provider, will be holding its annual Benzinga Global Fintech Awards, a day of dealmaking, networking, and recognition in the financial technology space, on November 11, 2021.

The event will award Benzinga Listmakers, those top companies part of Benzinga’s Global Fintech Index, for their accomplishments innovating, as well as merging the best of finance and technology.

In recognition of those disruptive innovators creating positive and diverse change within the financial services space, Benzinga presents Zinvest.

About: Founded in 2019, Zinvest is a fintech specializing in democratized stock market investing. The company is a pioneer in the digital investment advisory industry and has empowered investors to grow their investments through artificial intelligence technologies.

In the simplest way possible: Zinvest helps people invest using artificial intelligence.

Zinvest's Core Product: Zinvest comes as a commission-free trading app and automated portfolio management service.

“Users can trade stocks, ETFs, bonds, China A-Shares, commission-free, on our platform,” founder Bingshan Song told Benzinga in a discussion on the company’s free trading app, which is listed on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Given recent trends and changing investment personalities, Zinvest procured the technology and finance talent to empower a new generation of investors.

“Customers can use our portfolio management system to build their own portfolio ... [which] will reduce equity positioning and increase bond holdings,” during stress, Song said. 

The premium managed portfolio service charges quarterly a 1.5% annual management fee and requires a $3,000 minimum deposit.

Use Case, Recent Developments: Zinvest’s genesis comes alongside record retail trading activity and speculation surrounding so-called meme stocks like GameStop Corporation GME.

In allowing more market participants better, streamlined access to self-directed and managed trading solutions, Zinvest bolstered its technology initiatives and limited volatility restrictions.

“We’ve seen a large growth in downloads because of trends,” said Brian Cedeno, director of marketing at Zinvest. “We have a platform that will allow customers to trade this type of market without a lot of restrictions being placed on them, as much as some of these other brokers, that happened recently.”

Given the rise and fall of high-growth stocks, alongside a broad market rotation in the face of rising rates and an improving macroeconomic picture, some active participants are looking for ways to increase their performance amid recent drawdowns.

“The portfolio management side, because it is an API-enabled system, is for customers that want to have a more conservative approach … as [users] do not have time to trade on their own or they are already seeing growth in that platform and want to be a part of it without having to be exposed to a lot of volatility,” Cedeno said. 

Zinvest's Innovation Outlook: To reduce information asymmetries, Zinvest added a secondary-level account that increases the depth and breadth of data accessible on the platform.

Going forward, Zinvest looks to be on the front lines of innovation in the self-directed and portfolio management space. It will accomplish this by technology and access to information.

“We really built our platform out of a necessity for what happened in 2008, 2011, and especially here with COVID,” said Cedeno. “We really want to build a system that helps more people invest while they sleep, spend more time with their loved ones, and be able to focus on their financial goals.”