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[IT Dong-A Reporter Han Man-hyuk] Quantit is a fintech company developing AI-based investment solutions. Quantit runs a B2B business providing robo-advisor platforms to financial institutions and a B2C business operating solutions and investment information portals for general investors.
Currently, it offers the B2B platform 'FINTER', which designs and operates investment models based on data, the robo-advisor platform Plantit for general investors, and the investment information portal Moneytoring.
Quantit is actively expanding into the global market. It entered the Southeast Asian market, including Vietnam and Indonesia, about two years ago and is recently expanding its business to financial advanced countries like the United States and Singapore.
This year, Quantit plans to stabilize the growth of its B2B solutions while strengthening its B2C services and enhancing global partnerships. An interview was conducted with Han Deok-hee, CEO of Quantit, to discuss Quantit's key solutions and global expansion status.
Han Deok-hee, CEO of Quantit / Source=IT Dong-A
Quantit: Merging Financial Engineering and ITIT Dong-A: Hello, CEO Han Deok-hee. Please introduce yourself.
Han Deok-hee: Hello, I am Han Deok-hee from Quantit. I majored in computer science at KAIST and, after graduation, developed and operated trading systems and data-based portfolio generation systems at SK Telecom, KOSCOM, and Samsung Securities. Later, as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at CK Goldilocks Asset Management, I led projects merging financial engineering and IT technology.
As an engineer, I experienced various financial IT fields through exchanges, securities companies, and asset management companies, and I obtained an investment asset management license to directly manage funds. Based on this experience, I founded Quantit in 2019.
IT Dong-A: What motivated you to start Quantit?
Han Deok-hee: 'Quant' is a financial engineering technique that analyzes finance based on data. However, existing financial companies approached it merely as a tool and failed to utilize it properly. Therefore, I wanted to create a fair and efficient financial service that even individual investors could easily access by merging financial engineering and IT. Thus, the company name 'Quantit' was created by combining Quant and IT.
IT Dong-A: What kind of company is Quantit? Please introduce the company.
Han Deok-hee: Quantit is a fintech company providing AI-based investment solutions to enterprises and general investors. Quantit operates in two main areas: supplying AI-based investment solutions to financial institutions in the B2B sector and creating investment services directly for general investors in the B2C sector.
Solutions Supporting Easy and Efficient InvestmentIT Dong-A: Please introduce Quantit's solutions. What solutions are available?
Han Deok-hee: We offer three solutions: FINTER, Plantit, and Moneytoring.
First, let me explain FINTER. FINTER is our core service, a B2B platform that analyzes various data in real-time to design and automatically operate investment models. It is designed to handle the entire process from data collection, processing, model verification, operation, to order execution within one platform, and is provided in a cloud environment for scalability and stability. It also features an intuitive UI to help financial companies easily build robo-advisor-based services. Until last year, FINTER was divided into our solution's core engine and FINTER Labs as a web service, but due to customer confusion, it has been integrated into FINTER this year.
Using FINTER, financial companies can systematically manage various data and quickly create new investment products. Automatic operation allows multiple products to be managed simultaneously without significantly increasing manpower. Individual products can be combined to design new products, enabling financial companies to secure both efficiency and creativity.
FINTER is provided as a web service and AI chatbot. Although the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) differ, the utility is the same, allowing customers to choose the appropriate method according to their situation. For reference, the AI chatbot uses FINTER in a large language model (LLM)-based chat format. For this, the FINTER AI agent was developed.
Robo-advisor platform for general investors, Plantit / Source=Quantit
IT Dong-A: Please also explain Plantit.
Han Deok-hee: Plantit is a robo-advisor platform for general investors, rebranded by adding features to the existing 'Oli' platform.
Previously, only investment discretionary services were provided. To add new investment products, a 12-month disclosure in the robo-advisor testbed was required. It took over a year from planning an investment product to customer use, making it difficult to provide good products in a timely manner. Therefore, investment advisory services were added. As a result, investment products developed through FINTER can now be provided immediately. Although there is the inconvenience of customers having to manage the investments themselves, there is the advantage of experiencing investment products in line with trends and timeliness. Plantit was launched as an app on August 12.
IT Dong-A: I heard Moneytoring was recently introduced. Please provide a detailed introduction.
Han Deok-hee: We are focusing on expanding the B2C sector in earnest this year. As part of this, we introduced Moneytoring in collaboration with Smilegate. After about two years of development, the web and app versions were launched on August 11.
The most important aspect of investment is making decisions based on diverse information. To this end, investors use various investment information services such as portal sites, securities company mobile trading services (MTS), and group chat rooms. However, there are limitations to the information these services provide. The UI is complex, reducing accessibility.
To address these issues, Moneytoring was created. Moneytoring is a kind of investment information portal that gathers essential investment information for individual investors, analyzes and curates it through AI, and provides it in a customized manner. For reference, Moneytoring is a name that combines the English word 'money' with 'monitoring', meaning to observe the flow of money.
Platform providing customized information by analyzing and curating necessary information for investors, Moneytoring / Source=Quantit
Moneytoring has three main features. The first is 'AI Curation', which monitors vast amounts of information such as related news, disclosures, SNS, prices, and financial data in real-time when investors register their stocks or themes of interest, summarizing and notifying only the core information that must be checked. It's like an asset management expert constantly checking a customer's portfolio. By actively utilizing AI, even novice investors can easily grasp market trends or major news.
The second is 'Market Voice'. This function collects stock-related information in real-time and organizes it by topic. It also aggregates information provided by influencers such as YouTubers and Telegram operators in line with the latest trends. In the case of disclosures, only the important content is summarized to make it easy for general investors to understand.
The last is 'US Stock Specialized Information', which collects and analyzes data from over 200 global channels and translates it into Korean. This allows investors to easily access global stock market information. It also shows what events occurred at specific times and provides a value chain function that allows viewing related companies of a specific company at once.
Although Moneytoring is an investment information service, various services will be continuously added in the future. Functions that can create synergy with FINTER are also being prepared.
Expanding from Southeast Asia to the US and SingaporeIT Dong-A: I heard Quantit is actively expanding overseas. What achievements have been made?
Han Deok-hee: Financial investment is not a need specific to any country, and our solution is a business model that can enter any country. Therefore, we thought that if we entered overseas markets with a financial environment similar to our country, we could quickly expand our business. So, about two years ago, we started supplying robo-advisor solutions focusing on the Southeast Asian market.
At that time, with the support of Shinhan Financial Group, we entered the Vietnamese market and conducted business targeting domestic financial institutions that had entered the local market. Through this, we were able to expand to local financial institutions. Currently, we are conducting pre-verification for the commercialization of robo-advisor services with Shinhan Investment Corp.
Subsequently, we also entered Indonesia, which has a similar environment to Vietnam. In Indonesia, we are conducting business in partnership with well-known local companies such as Bareksa and Star Asset Management. We plan to introduce the first AI fund for US stock investment in the local market within this year.
Recently, we are expanding our business to financial advanced countries such as the United States and Singapore. In the US, from October, we will provide FINTER as an educational tool for the Financial Engineering and AI course at New York University (NYU). Since FINTER creates financial investment models based on data, it can be utilized in the field of financial engineering. We are also preparing a joint hackathon with New York University.
Additionally, we were selected for the 'Global STERN Signature Project' conducted by New York University. This project involves NYU MBA students collaborating with promising global companies for a semester, and only four companies are selected each year, with us being chosen this time. NYU MBA is recognized in the field of financial engineering, so we consider this a very encouraging achievement.
In Singapore, we are providing educational tools to major universities such as INSEAD Asia Campus and Singapore Management University (SMU) while negotiating solution supply with local hedge funds.
Han Deok-hee explaining Quantit's key solutions and global expansion achievements / Source=IT Dong-A
IT Dong-A: You are currently receiving support from the SeoulTech Global Corporate Collaboration Program. What support have you received?
Han Deok-hee: We are currently participating in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Jungle Program. Through this, we are receiving advice from AWS system architects to review and improve our cloud architecture. Our solution has a high utilization of cloud and LLM, so the structure significantly affects quality and cost. We expect that structural improvements through this program will lead to good results in terms of service scalability and operational stability.
IT Dong-A: Lastly, please tell us about your future plans and goals.
Han Deok-hee: We aim to stabilize the growth of our B2B solutions while further strengthening our B2C services. By continuously enhancing Moneytoring and Plantit, we will contribute to more investors accessing investment products more easily through AI-based investment experiences. Additionally, we plan to focus on expanding global partnerships to secure references in major markets like the US and Singapore. Our long-term goal is to grow into a hub for financial AI in Asia.
IT Dong-A Reporter Han Man-hyuk (mh@itdonga.com)
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