Akru roboadvisor Malaysia's home grown robo advisor 🤖🤖

I just discovered this new robo advisor called Akru (aptly named to sound like the word accrual). Akru is a homegrown robo advisor from my country in Malaysia. Robo advisors provide a low cost way to automate investing decisions for you based on risk profile. The other licensed robo advisors in Malaysia are Stashaway, MyTheo, Wahed Invest and Raiz Invest. Other than Akru, MyTheo robo advisor is also another made in Malaysia robo advisor but its backend engine (AI, algorithm) is from Japan's Money Design.

The annual fees (management fees) for Akru robo advisor is 0.7% for the 1st RM100,000 and there's no minimum investment amount. Just like the other robo advisors, there is no sales charges on purchases. The management fees charged goes down (see pic below) with more investments but in my opinion amount above RM50,000 is out of reach of the average retail investor. The management fees charged is considered at the lower end compared to other robo advisors, MyTheo robo advisor charges 0.9%. There are charges for FPX bank transfer (RM1) for this robo advisor charged by the payment gateway provider so it is advised not to transfer small amounts into this robo advisor (eg <RM50).

I did a quick check at Securities Commission Malaysia site to check if the company (Akru) is legit ✅ and found that they indeed were granted a license to operate on 03/08/2020, a very recent date in 2020.

Signing up to Akru is all online and you will need to upload a front copy of your IC (identity card), not sure why but the system does not ask for back copy of the IC (identity card).

To invest, you need to choose the portfolio you want back on your risk appetite. You will be presented with a sample portfolios with varying risk levels (Portfolio A ➡️ Portfolio E). As a start, I selected sample portfolio C with my risk appetite being able to take a possible 8% profit and a -10% loss. There's an RM10 one time admin fee charged for your 1st time investment.

After the sample portfolio is chosen, Akru will show you their customized recommended portfolio for you. Akru's investment instruments are all US ETFs (iShares, Vanguard). For the absolute beginner ETF stands for Exchange Traded Funds, it is basically a fund that buys into a basket of stocks and then sells it at a stock exchange as a single unit and ETFs are known for their low fees. Exposure at the moment seems to be more US centric investments/stocks. The Vanguard 500 ETF consists of the 500 largest companies in the US. From what I read, the conservative settings will have KAF Bond Fund and Nomura i-Income Fund.

I checked what US stocks constitute the Vanguard 500 ETF and all the big names in technology and consumer goods are all there (eg Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook).

As the ETF funds that Akru invests in are primarily denominated in USD or foreign currencies, the returns on investments will also be affected by fluctuation in the value of RM/USD currency pair. My investments in MyTheo robo advisor, another robo advisor in Malaysia has seen very muted gains because a lot of its portfolio is denominated in USD/foreign currencies, my gains were all muted by the unfavorable fluctuations in MYR/USD currency pair. I hope this is not the case for Akru.

As Akru is a new startup, Akru robo advisor is currently raising funds via ECF (equity crowd funding) and the arranger of the deal is Leet Capital.

At the moment the app is only available in web based format, there is no mobile version yet. From the YouTube interview given, it is mentioned that the company wants to conserve cash flow first and to launch the app as full web based first. Having said that, the web based app of Akru is quite mobile friendly and you can even add/pin the web mobile app on Android Phones, it web app looks just like a mobile app.

I've signed up with Akru and deposited RM500 as seed capital. I will update this space/page when I have tested it more. Money is deposited into a RHB account belonging to trustee account from Universal Trustee (M) Bhd. The funds are held by the trustee (custodian) and in the unfortunate event Akru's business have to wind up, the funds are still held safe with the trustee (Universal Trustee).

The investments done by Akru is quite a no brainer as most of the funds are in Vanguard index funds so it is quite passively managed and will be investment performance will be based on the performance of the Vanguard funds rather than Akru's investment capabilities.

Interestingly one of Akru's co-founder is ex BFM's (Business FM) radio caster Julian Ng, apparently before joining BFM 89.9 he was a former fund manager in Public Mutual, JP Morgan and CIMB. As a personal finance enthusiast, I've always been a fan of Julian's programmes on BFM.

I'm not familiar with the other co-founders but it's worth a try just to risk a smasll amount of money to test the app out and at the same time give support to a Malaysian grown/built product.

I cannot 100% publicly recommend this robo advisor yet as the company is still at its infancy growth stage and we know robo advisors needs to volume in order to be efficient with the low fees, for newbies there's other robo advisors like Stashaway, Wahed Invest and Raiz Invest which are more establish have a longer operating history. However, I believe Akru will be able to get some big name investors with large wallets in the near future and it then only will it be able to scale faster. I'm currently using Akru to gain exposure to Vanguard ETFs as one of my investment strategies.

On YouTube, there's an interview with Akru's co-founder by a well known personal finance blogger Mr Stingy. I've included the YouTube interview in the links below.

There's no referral or bonus for signing up to Akru at the moment but there's some indication by the company that there will be in future. Afterall, referrals are the cheapest and most effective ways for customer acquisition.

Updates 20201016

My RM500 initial investment has been invested by Akru already. There's a slight increase of RM2 in value probably due to favourable forex rates. My goal name is "Retirement Test", just a test goal to test out the functions and features of this Robo advisor. I set this goal's target to RM10,000 and it calculated my monthly contribution is RM141 based on the tenure I want to achieve this goal.

I can see the where the money was spent on in the Goal Orders Transaction area.

IEMG = iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF

IEFA = iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF

VOO = Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF

BND = Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund ETF

BNDX = Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund ETF

I am starting to like minimalist yet informative interface of the Akru web app, performance wise the site is quite ok.

Updates 20201021

Not much difference in my portfolio after a few days but I just logged into confirm that the data (net asset) is updated regularly. At the same time I also noticed some tiny dividends coming in from the Vanguard Bond and Money Market Funds.

Updates 20201025

Interestingly, Akru has managed to raise enough capital (min goal RM500K) from ECF (equity crowdfunding)markets. It's still way below the maximum goal but nonetheless it is a remarkable goal. I'm considering investing in the company at the moment but still thinking how this company can scale big.

Personally, I'm not investing in this ECF as I need to allocate my funds elsewhere. For a robo advisor business to be profitable, it needs a lot of volume, it needs to grow very big on its AUM (assets under management) as its earnings is derived mainly from management fees (from 0.7%). As the Akru robo advisor grows it will need to go into non management fees income like what Raiz Invest Australia is doing. The robo advisor is expected to be profitable after year 3 onwards based on the ECF term sheet details.

What I know is the company Akru is hoping EPF will allow withdrawal of EPF into robo advisors in future just like what we can do now to withdraw EPF Akaun money to invest in selected mutual funds/unit trust. At the moment EPF only allows EPF withdrawals to unit trust/mutual fund companies (eg Public Mutual, Affin Hwang).

Updates 20201029

😲 Portfolio going downwards slightly but then again these kind of investments are for long term and best used with DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging) method. Have to just invest and close one eye and wait.

Updates 20201106

Portfolio going like a roller coaster with shoots of recovery, reminder to self not to keep checking in on the value of my portfolio so frequently.

There's a recovery back in US markets probably due to US elections. At the moment, Donald Trump is expected to concede to Joe Biden. Volatility is expected as there is uncertainty in the markets.

I pulled out the charts of the Vanguard 500 ETF price and it seems to have an upward bias so far if you do a buy and hold strategy over the years. My Arku's portfolio is 50% in the Vanguard 500 ETF.

Updates 20201112

Post election in US and in line with the continued bull run in US equities, my portfolio has increase in value slightly. My portfolio is now slightly above the RM500 that I originally invested 😊.

In addition, I created a new goal to save RM3,000 to buy myself a new laptop in 1 years time. I choose higher risk for this portfolio. If I actually manage to save this amount (RM3,000) I shall buy myself a new laptop and practice delayed gratification. My laptop goal portfolio is set to aggressive. Normally I do not use aggressive portfolio for but I just want to test this setting in Akru, after all I am budgeting to buy a new laptop.

For now my total investments is RM700, RM500 for retirement fund and RM200 for buying myself a new laptop.

Updates 20201123

I topped up some money into the portfolios as I had some spare cash lying around, making my total investments to Akru RM1,000. Let's see how this grows over time. Hope it's not a going to be a roller coaster ride. I'm anticipating positive vaccine news will give some lift to global markets and this is directly also positively impact the robo advisor.

Updates 20201128

Slight increase in portfolio. Thinking of topping up more when market dips, I think the trigger point for this would be when the covid19 vaccine news subsides and people feel that it will take longer than expected for the recovery.

Updates 20201204

Just topped up additional RM1,000 to my Akru account since got some bonus from the company I work for. Total investments is now RM2,013. My portfolios need to go above this value to be profitable from this point onwards.

My total investments so far is calculated below (Total : RM2,013) :

open account- RM10

1st deposit - RM700 (RM1 transfer fee)

2nd deposit - RM300 (RM 1 transfer fee)

3rd deposit - RM1000 (RM 1 transfer fee)

There's still management fees to consider but at the moment the fees is quite low at the moment so these fees can be omitted for this calculations.

Updates 20201210

Portfolio seems edging up a bit these few days before the end of 2020.

On the dividends side I still some tiny miniscule amount of dividends coming in from the bond and money market ETFs.

I noticed at the moment from the app the goals created cannot be deleted. This could be something that the IT team at Akru could look into.

Updates 20201223

Found a way to top up funds not using FPX, just direct bank in into Akru's trust account and put in my IC number in the reference fill, this way I do not incur RM1 payment gateway transfer fees from Bank. I topped up an additional RM400 into my account. This will be the final amount invested for year 2020.

I see some dividends from equity ETFs coming into the account also (iShares core MSCI Emerging Market ETF)

Updates 20201230

The dividends received amounting to RM1 will be reinvested.

Updates 2020107

New year for 2021, I've topped up additional RM300.

My total investments so far is calculated below (Total : RM2,713) :

open account- RM10

1st deposit - RM700 (RM1 transfer fee)

2nd deposit - RM300 (RM 1 transfer fee)

3rd deposit - RM1000 (RM 1 transfer fee)

4th deposit - RM 400 (use manual transfer)

5th deposit - RM300 (use manual transfer)

Manual transfers don't have RM1 transfer fee (FPX), saves a bit of money if you are transferring in smaller amounts. For manual transfers, you are transferring to the trustee account of Akru, you need to put in your IC as reference number for the team to pick up and invest the money.

My target for year 2021 is to put in RM5,000 into my Akru. How big the portfolio will grow I will let it run its course.

Updates 2020110

I promised myself not to keep looking at portfolio but for now this app is very new and fresh so I still can't help checking my portfolio daily especially when it's rising.

One of the reasons is the equity ETFs are starting to pay out dividends.

Updates 20210118

Put in my last year bonus RM1,000. Since incoming US President Joe Biden just announced a trillion dollar stimulus plan, I think US equities/stocks should stay go up further. There's now more certainty in the US markets and that is why US equities/stocks is a good play now. I think there will be a bubble and it will pop maybe in the 2nd half of 2021.

Updates 20210002

Happy to see more dividends coming in ☺️. Decided to pump more into the funds. Added another RM500.

Updates 20210310

The ride on Akru has been very bumpy. I'm still down despite topping up some funds. I was anticipating stimulus from US federal reserve would push the US stock market up further but it didn't' and instead it dipped.

Updates 20210417

After a long hiatus, I couldn't resist logging into my Akru account to check the balance. I was expecting the portfolio to raise a bit as US stock markets seems to be reaching new highs every day recently. The returns seem ok for now but I'm not celebrating yet as the world economy remains shaky.

On and off there's some issues viewing the app but eventually all gets sorted out.

Updates 20210508

As the US stock markets heat up, so does my investments. The Vanguard S&P500 ETF (VOO) which is part of what Akru buys into was on the rise so it's quite normal for the portfolio to rise.

I see a lot of people asking on forums if Akru is a good investment or not but instead I've always mentioned in my other blog posts, the performance of any robo advisors is tied very closely to the investment instruments that they invest in. There are no hot shot ferrari driving star fund manager (pun intended) managing the money behind the scene, robo advisors are passively managed and hence the lower management fees.

Updates 20210526

I've put in additional RM300, seeing US covid cases heading below the 20k range, economy should start staging a rebound once the economy full reopens.

Updates 20210601

Topped up another RM1,000. US stock markets seems to be doing a U turn.

Updates 20210701

As expected US stock markets is expecting big recovery from Covid19. According to CNN, United States is now operating at 92% capacity before Covid19.

Updates 20210812

Returns from Akru is still positive as long as the US markets maintain its upward momentum. While US covid cases are back to high levels but deaths from covid remain at the lower scale.

Updates 20210926

Akru is giving RM10 for new sign ups, no need put in any referral codes. My returns for 2021 Sept is almost the same as last month so far as stock market pessimism starts to kick in with the raging Covid19 Delta variant.