Note from the Publisher:  Although many industry insiders are well aware that most robo-advisors have yet to turn a profit, due to MASSIVE customer cost per acquistion and the COMPRESSED FEES that they originated in the industry, one robo is teaming up to head to South America.  DriveWealth has formed a partnership with Alkanza, another RIA based in Silicon Valley.  According to one listing, Alkanza has just $53M AUM and 1480 accounts with an average balance of $36,000.  Anyway, the two firms have teamed up to offer robo-advisory services to residents of Chile and Argentina.  In general, robos will have to expand whereever they can in order to build market share and drive up AUM.  These two are doing it by dipping their toes into the South American market, and it will be interesting to watch how this venture unfolds.

"DriveWealth, 1 a U.S.-based broker-dealer, is pleased to announce its partnership with Alkanza Inc.2, a Silicon Valley based Registered Investment Advisor. Together Alkanza and DriveWealth bring premium digital investment advisory services to Latin America, beginning with Argentina and Chile.

Alkanza is a U.S. based Registered Investment Advisor (“RIA”) that offers investors around the world an automated platform to create and manage highly diversified investment portfolios for a low monthly fee. Clients of Alkanza can utilize its platform to generate savings goals and investment plans, while Alkanza’s proprietary artificial intelligence engine constructs investment portfolios to take into account these goals and risk tolerances. By connecting to DriveWealth, Alkanza can offer its extensive advisory services in Latin America, beginning with Argentina and Chile.

Alkanza is connected to DriveWealth through its Wealth Management set of APIs, which were announced over the summer. DriveWealth’s Wealth Management APIs give advisors the flexibility of choosing how they want to work with their customers by offering three levels of support: non-discretionary, blended, and fully discretionary. Alkanza provides fully discretionary accounts to their clients, which means that Alkanza will manage the strategy, trades, and rebalancing for their clients’ portfolios.

The collaboration between Alkanza and DriveWealth gives investors in Latin America the opportunity to have a professionally managed portfolio of U.S. securities at a price lower than many U.S. residents pay for similar services. Investors in Argentina and Chile who are interested in opening fully managed investment accounts can now open accounts via Alkanza’s website."

Read Full Press Release at Benzinga