Robo-advisor Scalable Capital has reached €500 million in assets 22 months after launching in Germany and 16 months after launching in the UK. The firm uses proprietary risk management algorithms to manage portfolios built using ETFs for clients.

Scalable Capital has been attracting older investors and more women in the last year.

Adam French, founder and CEO of Scalable Capital, commented: “In the past ten months, we have been able to grow our assets five-fold to over half a billion euros. That shows that private investors value the benefits of a technology-driven investment model, cost-effective ETFs and digital usability.”

An interesting detail of the announcement is that the average age of Scalable’s investors is getting older – it currently stands at 50 whereas it was only 42 just over a year ago, while a third of investors are over 55. This would appear to be contrary to the perceived wisdom that robo-advisors will only appeal to millennials.

Scalable also notes that a growing number of its investors are women, who now make up over 20% of investors. One thing clients do have in common no matter their age or gender is they are well educated. Over 90% have a university degree and the most common professions are bankers, economists, computer scientists and engineers. The average client has £28,000 invested with Scalable, although almost a third have over £100,000.

The asset management firm behind the iShares range of ETFs, BlackRock, took a significant minority stake in Scalable Capital in June 2017, a development that might call into question the impartiality of the selection process governing which ETFs are the preferred destinations for investors’ money.

Of the 14 ETFs used by Scalable, nine are provided by iShares, four by Vanguard and one, the ETFS Longer Dated All Commodities Go UCITS ETF (FAIG LN), by ETFs Securities.