With its Singapore HQ, onshore India business, a planned office in London and business presence in Dubai, Lighthouse Canton is positioning itself to tap into a number of markets. We talk to its CEO.

Certain wealth and financial services firms stress their boutique nature, and those at the other end of the spectrum brandish the benefits of scale. Singapore-headquartered Lighthouse Canton, a firm that recently said it expects to surpass $4 billion of AuM by year-end, is definitely going after the scale side of things.

Founded in 2014 and with $3.7 billion in AuM as at 30 June, 2024, the firm has been busy, for example announcing a number of appointments within its wealth management business to expand client coverage from North Asia, Southeast Asia and Europe. Besides Singapore, it has booking centres in Dubai and India, and plans to open a London office in the first quarter of 2025. Globally, it employs about 160 people. 

The business – a global investment institution, providing integrated financial services – combines wealth and asset management. It has the scale of an institutionalised business enabling it to stand out in what remains a “fragmented” EAM sector, Shilpi Chowdhary (pictured), its chief executive, told this news service in a call. 

“There are very few people who achieve scale,” he said. The firm aims to double its AuM in the next couple of years. 

The size and scope of Lighthouse Canton means that it can support a good human resources team, a strong culture and a happy workplace environment, Chowdhary said. 

Important footprints in India, Dubai, Singapore – and soon in London – inevitably prompted this publication to ask why Lighthouse Canton wanted to be in London at a time when the current UK government appears to be turning the screws on HNW individuals, such as resident non-doms.

Chowdhary said the company “doesn’t have a short-term view…it is important for us as a centre.”

“We have to be where our clients are interested in. This is not necessarily about the locals but the Asian diaspora,” he said. London is an important place for Asian, Middle East and Indian clients.

The firm has a wealth management business, serving corporates, ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices, founders and entrepreneurs, to help with their personal and business investment needs with tailored investment advisory, portfolio management, treasury, and business and family office solutions. Lighthouse Canton also adds investment banking capabilities for its clients to its repertoire – an important element when many clients have operating firms of their own.

The asset management arm isn’t limited to the wealth management clients. This side of the business has internal product capabilities in hedge funds, private equity, traditional fundamental analysis, investing through multiple strategies in real estate private equity, direct lending, public equities, and global macros. 

A distinctive feature of the business is its work with large institutional investors. 

Earlier in 2024, the asset management firm signed a memorandum of understanding with NH ARP, the Singapore entity of NH Securities, part of the NH Group in South Korea, to co-invest in the Indian and Southeast Asian private debt markets. This investment focuses on supporting SMEs and startups in the region. Lighthouse Canton has also invested alongside Ivanhoe Cambridge, CDPQ’s real estate investment arm, into South Asia's largest life sciences R&D office labs portfolio, Neovantage Innovation Parks, located in India's largest biotech cluster, Genome Valley, Hyderabad. 

Onshore India
Chowdhary said a differentiating quality was that Lighthouse Canton has a large onshore India business. Over the next eight to 10 years, India is rising into being a $10 trillion economy. “To be in the local market you have to be a local. It is an extremely competitive market,” he said. “I started my career in India and we do have a significant business and are known in India. The market has massive potential and that excites us.”

In Dubai, Lighthouse Canton is tapping into the rising wealth of the region. “We are trying to bring in a level of professionalism that has been missing in this market,” he said. “It’s a huge opportunity.”

“Locally, we feel that the independent wealth and asset management industry [in Dubai, Gulf] is quite similar to that in Asia. It is still at a nascent stage, there are many players but more at the boutique level or simply dealing with investments or trade execution. There are few players who have the institutional capabilities or partner network to also advise globally with cross-border family and business structures, succession and estate planning, and asset management,” Chowdhary said. 

In the pocket
Chowdhary talked about Lighthouse Canton’s “private bank in your pocket” offering  

The firm has developed its own proprietary advanced technology platform, LC Vantage. It integrates private banking capabilities. From onboarding to execution, the platform consolidates multi-custodian statements and provides portfolio analytics.  

Separately Chowdhary also drives wealthtech development as CEO of Keenai, an AI-driven offering that has two main products: Keenai Wealth and Keenai Pulse. Analysis from Lighthouse Canton’s research and investment team, along with AI-driven insights, feeds into Keenai. 

Keenai Wealth is aimed at accredited investors, giving access to sophisticated investment products and services tailored to the needs of high net worth individuals who qualify as Accredited Investors under Singapore regulations. Separately Keenai Pulse for institutions, advisors or family offices is an AI-powered enterprise solution consolidation, advanced insights, and reporting. It aggregates end-of-day transactions from all custodians and advisors.

Lighthouse Canton mostly charges a flat-rate fee; some of its revenue agreements are based on clients’ AuM. 

India
This publication asked Chowdhary how he sees the Indian and India-linked wealth story evolving.

“On the wealth management side, the India diaspora is diverse and so are the levels of wealth. We’ve seen Mumbai surpass Beijing to become Asia’s top billionaire city (source: CNBC). We believe this will continue as we see the next generation of wealth take the baton, expanding on their parents or grandparent’s legacies. On the other hand, the startup ecosystem is growing at rapid pace – unicorns and decacorns are coming out of India, and many of these founders and entrepreneurs will need investments as well as wealth management to grow their businesses and personal wealth. 

“From here, we also see these HNW Indians and UHNW Indians becoming more global as their families spread across Singapore, Dubai, and the UK. We also cater to onshore clients who have global investments through our global family office services, and they can leverage our global office network of capabilities and partners. As such, we have different tiers of offerings depending on the level of wealth management and investment requirements of the onshore clients in India.   

“Separate to this we also have business partners who work with us for their capital markets and fixed income requirements,” Chowdhary added.