Finax results in a record-maker of 2024

Not going to lie, this kind of market environment is something all investors would probably wish for every year. We've just experienced two years with an average annual return of 20% on the global stock market. Economic growth, rising company profitability, and interest rate cuts on both sides of the Atlantic contributed to the fact that markets simply didn’t run out of steam this year.

Another key factor was the growth of real wages (i.e., wages adjusted for inflation) in several Central European countries, the main operation site for Finax. In Slovakia, too, wages grew faster than inflation. In practice, this means that Europeans once again have some extra room in their budgets, allowing them to save and build wealth.

We are pleased to see that interest in investing has grown this year, although we have long emphasized that deciding to invest should not be based solely on past market performance or the fact that you have extra money in your bank account. Whenever possible, extra investments should be made during times of crisis when stocks are at their lowest prices. However, we believe that intelligent investors understand this principle.

We didn’t slack off this year either, we continued enhancing our products and expanding our educational initiatives. At the beginning of the year, we launched the Financial Wellness program, through which we provide financial literacy training as an employee benefit directly in companies. Additionally, we introduced our very first portfolios denominated in local currency in Poland (Polish zloty), hence the name Zloty portfel.

These portfolios are managed within a new trading system, which we acquired through the acquisition of Aion Bank’s investment activities. Compared to our older systems, it’s more flexible, better suited for handling larger asset volumes, and capable of supporting daily trading (i.e., ETF purchases and sales). Testing this system with Polish portfolios was a necessary step toward gradually transitioning all our products to it.

The Finax app has also received a few upgrades, featuring a redesigned interface and the addition of the Financial Coach function. Intelligent investors can now link all their bank accounts for free, track their budget, and monitor the growth of their net worth.

All the development mentioned contributed significantly to Finax breaking records in multiple areas in 2024. Below, you’ll find an overview of key insights and statistics about intelligent investors over the past year.

We sincerely appreciate your continued support and the trust you place in us!

Assets under management (AuM) 

• Client assets under Finax management reached 1,06 billion euros at the end of the year. We’ve thus reached the magic milestone of 1 billion under management, which we’ve set as our target at the beginning of last year.

• That’s an 84% increase compared to the end of 2023. This can be attributed to three main factors:
  
  • Market performance: E.g. the 100% equity portfolio managed to yield 19% since the beginning of the year, and all the other strategies ended up profitable too
  • Large net deposits from the intelligent investors
  • Acquisition of Aion Bank’s investment activities, thus obtaining a well working B2B partnership with a German company UnitPlus (for which we manage client portfolios) and former clients of the robo-advisor, ETFmatic. Their assets went under our management on Jan. 1^st, 2024.  
• From the total asset volume, 166 million euros is made up of the assets of the client of a German fintech company UnitPlus. The rest are assets of Finax and former ETFmatic clients.  

Net deposits 

• The total volume of net deposits (i.e., deposits minus withdrawals) exceeded 286 million euros, marking a historic record and an 88% increase compared to 2023.
  
  • Net deposits are a better measure of sales success than the growth of assets under management, as the latter can be inflated by market performance.

• December was a record-breaking month in terms of deposits, as clients fully took advantage of our most generous campaign in history (all December deposits managed for one year without a portfolio management fee). Net deposits for the month exceeded 42 million euros (excluding deposits and withdrawals from UnitPlus clients).
• This year’s market environment also benefited our competition. Net deposits into mutual funds (both domestic and foreign) in Slovakia reached 796,5 million euros in 2024 (source: Slovak Association of Asset Management Companies).
•  Over the year, intelligent investors made more than 761 000 deposits, representing a 35% increase compared to the previous year.
•  The average deposit also slightly increased to 368 euros, up 5% from last year’s 350 euros.
• (As before, UnitPlus clients are excluded from the statistics on the number of deposits and average deposit amounts.)

Number of clients

• The total number of active clients reached almost 87 thousand.  
• This result fell short of our target of 100 000 active clients set at the beginning of the year. Our original plan focused primarily on a higher number of new European Pension accounts and securing an additional B2B partnership beyond the one with UnitPlus.

• Despite this, the result is far from disappointing. Compared to the previous year, the number of clients grew by a solid 62%. The acquisition of former Aion Bank clients at the beginning of the year also partially contributed to this growth.
• We define active clients as those who have completed the registration process, verified their identity, and made their first deposit. If a client withdraws all funds from their account, they are deactivated in our system.

Average assets

• The average assets of a Finax client have been steadily growing over time. In 2024, this figure reached 12,8 thousand euros. This statistic includes only direct Finax clients, excluding UnitPlus.
• Compared to the 10,8 thousand euros average assets per client from the previous year, this represents a 19.6% increase.   

• The long-term growth of average client assets is propelled by market appreciation and the fact that intelligent investors continue making regular deposits into their accounts. We are pleased to see the wealth of our intelligent investors steadily growing, as this remains one of our core missions.
• The asset allocation between stocks and bonds remains similar to last year. The equity share in the average portfolio slightly increased from 81.1% to 82.7%. This statistic considers only assets in Intelligent Investing portfolios, our flagship product. Smart Deposit, Intelligent Wallet, European Pension, and B2B portfolios are not included in this calculation.

• Part of this increase can likely be attributed to the strong stock performance, which naturally raised their share of total assets. However, rebalancing is continuously performed to bring portfolio allocation back to its target weight over the long run.
• The 100% equity portfolio remains our most popular Intelligent investing portfolio,  holding 245 million euros, thus accounting for 35% of total assets in the Intelligent Investing product.
• The high equity share indicates that most intelligent investors are focused on long-term wealth accumulation. The average planned investment horizon for our clients currently stands at nearly 18 years.

Product share on the managed assets 

• Intelligent Investing remains our core product, holding two thirds of the overall assets held in Finax.

• Its share slightly declined compared to last year (from 73% to 66%), primarily in favor of B2B assets managed for UnitPlus. Their share of Finax’s total assets has nearly doubled from year to year, rising from 7.9% to 15.7%.  
• The increase in UnitPlus’s share is mainly due to strong net deposits in the first half of the year. UnitPlus primarily offers short-term investment products tied to central bank interest rates (similar to our Smart Deposit). Additionally, it provides payment cards and unique investment solutions for corporate clients. Currently, it is working on expanding its offerings to include long-term investment products.
• This year, we launched a new product: Złoty portfel—our first portfolios denominated in a local currency. These portfolios include instruments tracking Polish interest rates and a higher share of Polish equities. Although we only launched it in the fall, Polish clients already hold over 1,5 million euros in it. Since this remains a negligible fraction of total assets, we have not yet included it in our graphs.
• We are also pleased to see a slight increase in the share of the European Pension (PEPP) from 2.3% to 3.7%. This product has gained the most traction in Poland, where it benefits from lucrative tax incentives and the ability to transfer savings from the third pension pillar to PEPP.

Intelligent investors by category 

• The largest share of assets is held by clients who have Slovak as their communication language, accounting for nearly 65% of total assets under Finax’s management. This is logical, as Slovakia is our home market with the strongest marketing activities.

• Compared to last year, German-speaking UnitPlus clients were added to our management portfolio. Since the beginning of January, their assets have grown by 215%, making this the fastest-growing segment among the languages displayed in the graph. In 2023, Germany also became our second-largest market.
• Among our traditional markets, Croatia recorded the strongest growth, with assets held by Croatian-speaking clients increasing by 120% year-over-year.
• The remaining languages displayed in the graph all achieved double-digit year-over-year asset growth.
• The map below shows the distribution of clients by country of permanent residence, regardless of the amount of assets they hold with us. Here too, Slovakia leads with a 54% share.

• A positive development is the growing share of international clients. While in 2023, they accounted for 39% of our client base, this figure has now risen to 46%. One of our strategic goals is to make Finax a more international company, ensuring that Intelligent Investing is accessible to all European citizens.
• The largest year-over-year increases came from Germany (rising from 12% to 20%) and Croatia (growing from 3.5% to 5.2%).

• This graph presents the distribution of assets based on the source of client acquisition or classification. 
• Direct sales—clients who independently open an account via our app or website—continue to dominate the statistics each year. However, their share slightly declined from 47% to 42% compared to last year.
• Finax Elite, our program for private clients holding more than 100 000 euros had an exceptional year. Shortly after Christmas, their total assets surpassed 300 million euros, marking a 47% increase compared to 2023. 
• The volume of assets managed through financial agents also grew over the past year. Their clients now hold approximately 150 million euros, reflecting a 34% year-over-year increase.

• Similar to 2023, the average age of Finax clients has increased slightly again this year. The statistics in this graph include only direct Finax clients, excluding B2B clients from UnitPlus and former ETFmatic clients.
• For the first time, the largest client segment is now the 36–45 age group, surpassing the 26–35 age group, which held the top position in previous years. 
• The highest number of new clients in 2024 (4,827) came from the 36–45 age group, while the 46–55 age group saw the highest percentage growth(+33%). 
• All age groups displayed in the graph recorded an increase in client numbers in 2024.

Content engagement

• Educational content in the form of blogs, videos, and podcasts remains one of our key activities. We are pleased to see that engagement has increased slightly compared to 2023.
• This graph includes content performance across all languages we offer: Slovak, Polish, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, and English.

• Among content types, YouTube videos saw the highest growth, with views increasing by more than 27% across our channels.
• Performance on podcast platforms was weaker, with the number of listens dropping by 20% compared to the previous year. However, it's important to note that all our podcasts are also published as videos on YouTube, meaning these are not entirely separate content categories.
• Finax website traffic, measured by the number of unique visitors, increased by 11%.

Financial statement

• In the past, Finax was often criticized for not being profitable. Our competition argued that this made our business unsustainable.
• However, strong growth in 2024 combined with prudent financial management has translated into positive financial results. Thanks to this, we can now proudly say that our business is sustainable and capable of being a long-term financial partner on your investment journey.
  

• Revenue for 2024 reached 6,19 million euros, representing a year-over-year increase of nearly 57%.
• Thanks to strict cost control, we were able to translate this revenue into profit, which, according to preliminary financial results, is expected to reach almost 200 000 euros. Please note that this is a preliminary estimate, still subject to auditor verification.
• We do not plan to distribute profits to owners; instead, 100% of it will be reinvested into improving our services. More details on our plans for 2025 will be shared in our traditional blog, which we will publish in the coming weeks.

For the end of this blog, I would like to once again express my gratitude for your continuing support. The results, both ours and those of our competitors, confirm that interest in investing in Slovakia continues to grow every year. We are delighted to see more and more investors actively building their wealth and protecting their hard-earned money from inflation.

We also acknowledge that not every year will bring 20% market gains and the accompanying public enthusiasm for investing. Inevitably, we will face years of weaker growth or even market downturns. However, we firmly believe that our clients understand this reality and are prepared to take advantage of potential declines by buying at more favorable prices.

I hope that the coming year will be just as prosperous for you, intelligent investors, as the past one.

Wishing you success in all your endeavors!