Letter from our new CEO

Dear Investors,

Looking back over the past two years since I joined ADDX as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), I am proud of what we have achieved as a team.

We faced enormous challenges from the get-go. At the start of 2020, having received our licenses from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), we walked straight into a pandemic. We had to get our business off the ground while most the world was working from home.  In addition, we were pioneers in the uncharted space of digital securities and had to work through entirely novel issues in areas such as legal structuring and compliance.

We were not afraid. We defined the space for ourselves. We stepped boldly into the unknown.

As CCO, one of my key responsibilities was building up ADDX as a capital markets platform. We had to secure new issuance deals, while expanding our individual, corporate and institutional investor base. The two are interdependent and have to grow in tandem – we must be able to offer investors a wide range of opportunities, while ensuring we can raise and bring enough capital to the table when new issuers come to us.

The talented team we assembled rose to the occasion. By the end of 2021, our investor base was growing at an annual rate of 120%. The number of deals we launched nearly tripled from 2020 to 2021. By the end of last year, we had completed a total of 24 deals, raising US$150 million in transaction volume on behalf of blue-chip names like Partners Group, Investcorp, UOB, Hanwha Asset Management, and Temasek-owned entities Mapletree, Azalea and SeaTown.

Stepping Into A New Phase As CEO

Against this backdrop, my goal as I step into the role of CEO Designate this week is to ensure that ADDX stays on this trajectory of steady, substantive growth.

By 2023, we are projecting the total number of deals completed on our platform to multiply by four times to 100 and our total transaction volume to hit US$1 billion. Our track record suggest these targets are well within reach. We are taking ADDX beyond Singapore’s shores – our investors come from 27 countries, across Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas (except the US). This year, we are also stepping up our efforts to expand our corporate and institutional partnerships.

My vision is for ADDX to become Asia’s largest private market exchange. We envision ourselves as the Amazon for the alternatives space. That means no matter which asset class investors are looking for and whatever their risk profile or investment horizon might be, ADDX will carry opportunities that add value to your portfolios. We want to be the first platform that comes to mind for anyone thinking about private market assets, whether they are issuers or investors – including, eventually, retail investors.

For this to happen, the ADDX platform must be home to a full suite of products – venture capital, private equity, hedge funds, private credit, real estate, cryptocurrency funds, structured products and more. As we expand in breadth, so too must we grow in depth, increasing the variety of offerings within each asset vertical.

We must also make the process as simple and seamless as it can be. Our mobile app has already made investing so much easier, with the majority of investors now transacting on it.  But we can do more. We recently introduced secondary trading on the app, and we will roll out other features this year – so you can stay in control of your investments from anywhere, at any time.

To achieve the above, we are expanding our team from 90 to 120 this year, with the bulk of new hires going to tech and product development.

Driven By Our Mission

The possibilities are endless – we are limited only by our imagination. But at the same time, we are not chasing growth for its own sake. We must be driven by our “why” – our mission of democratising the private markets.

In the face of economic disruption and declining returns in the public markets, young people “stand to make dismal returns on their investments”, notes The Economist. For the traditional 70-30 blend of public stocks and bonds, average lifetime returns are expected to fall from more than 6% p.a. for Baby Boomers to just 2% p.a. for Generation Z. Billionaires and pension funds can sense the profound change in the investment landscape and they are allocating larger proportions of their portfolios to the private markets. ADDX was founded to help individuals do the same. We wake up and work hard every day to make sure they can get fair and equal access to private investments.

As we turn a new chapter in the development of ADDX this year, our fundamentals and our founding values do not change. You have my word: In my time as CEO, we will stay the course – and we will arrive at the destination.

Thank you for joining us on this journey.

Oi-Yee Choo
CEO Designate, ADDX

Hear more from Oi-Yee about her morning rituals, biggest pet peeves, advice to women in finance and more in our 3-minutes with Oi-Yee video!

ADDX is your entry to private market investing. It is a proprietary platform that lets you invest from USD 10,000 in unicorns, pre-IPO companies, hedge funds, and other opportunities that traditionally require millions or more to enter.

ADDX is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and is open to all non-US accredited and institutional investors.

Become an investor today!