Animoca Brands, a global digital assets leader building blockchain and tokenized assets to advance the future of Web3 innovation, announced that it has entered into a term sheet with GROW Investment Group (“GROW”), China’s leading investment and asset management platform backed by Julius Baer. Under the term sheet, Animoca Brands will enter into a strategic partnership with GROW and make an equity investment in GROW Asset Management (HK) Limited, which will later change its name to GROW Digital Wealth (“GDW”), GROW’s flagship platform.
Under the proposed partnership, Animoca Brands and GROW will build GDW into one of the first platforms in Asia to offer both crypto and traditional finance investment products to family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. The goal is to enable independent financial advisors (IFAs) to serve family offices and ultra-high-net-worth clients with the latest technology, best-performing global institutional investment products, and highest compliance standards.
GDW holds Type 1 (dealing in securities), Type 4 (advising on securities), and Type 9 (asset management) licenses issued by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. It empowers IFAs across Asia with a fully regulated, modern wealth-management operating system and curated global institutional-grade products designed for family offices and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
Animoca Brands plans to introduce crypto assets, including real world assets (RWAs), to GDW, while GROW will bring its curated investment products to GDW. IFAs will be able to offer their clients both crypto and traditional finance products via GDW’s institutional and compliant-grade platform.
The strategic partnership would tap into the growing asset management market in China, which has over 3 million high-net-worth individuals with investable assets exceeding CNY127 trillion (approximately US$18 trillion). As investors seek higher returns, they are diversifying from traditional onshore assets to overseas investments and alternative products.
In addition, Animoca Brands and GROW plan to introduce educational initiatives to help investors understand and benefit from the increasing convergence between traditional and decentralized finance.
As part of the proposed transaction, Animoca Brands intends to acquire an equity interest in GDW of up to 15%, subject to definitive agreements and any required approvals.
Alan Lau, chief business officer of Animoca Brands, commented: “Hong Kong is emerging as an important hub for regulated digital asset activity in Asia. By partnering with GROW, we aim to connect our Web3 and RWA initiatives with a licensed wealth management platform to further expand access to digital assets. Together we intend to explore compliant, technology‑driven ways to bring new asset classes and structures to family offices and independent advisors in the region.”
William Ma, founding partner and global chief investment officer of GROW, commented: “We believe the world of wealth management is on the cusp of drastic change with decentralization and disintermediation being two disruptive powerful forces. The successful wealth management models of the near future will be those that combine the best of both traditional and digital offerings, with the strongest alignment of interest to clients by technology. We are excited to have the opportunity to work with a global leader – Animoca Brands – on this exciting venture.”