Netwealth Acquires AI Advice Platform Paradino for Up to $39 Million
Synopsis
Netwealth Group has agreed to acquire AI-powered advice platform Paradino for up to $39 million, strengthening its push into AI-driven financial advice and adviser productivity.
Key Highlights
- Netwealth Group has announced that it will buy AI-led advice platform Paradino
- The agreement includes $20M upfront and potentially up to $39M total.
- Paradino claims its technology helps the financial adviser save over nine hours a week.
- Netwealth intends to integrate Paradino’s AI solutions with its Unify data platform.
Netwealth Group is bolstering its push into artificial intelligence after agreeing to buy advisory workflow platform Paradino, an Australian company.
The ASX-listed wealth management company has agreed to pay $15 million in cash, along with $5 million of Netwealth shares held in escrow for the purchase of 100% of Paradino. An additional $9 million in earn-out and retention payments may be made over four years, while Netwealth has allocated another $10 million for product development.
Paradino Uses AI for Financial Advice
Paradino is a software development company that started in 2024 by Alex Gassner and Josh Ratnarajah automating some of the most redundant work performed by financial advisers.
It helps with file notes, client communications, compliance documentation and other advice-related workflows. Paradino claims its technology can free up more than nine hours of an adviser’s time each week, a gain of approximately 38% in efficiency.
By the end of August, the company reported $1.6 million of annualised recurring revenue and 535 subscribers across a total of 336 advice businesses. Paradino limited monthly churn to less than 1%, but it remains loss-making and is on track for an EBITDA loss of $3 million in FY27.
Netwealth Plans Deeper AI Integration
The acquisition is a part of Netwealth's Dx30 strategy to double its funds under administration, with an eye towards the end of the four calendar years. It intends to bring AI to advisers' productivity, creating more room for what they want to do: direct work with clients.
Over 100 of Paradino’s current subscribers are already on the Netwealth platform, providing an instant customer base for the new integration. Netwealth will also integrate the Paradino workflow technology with client and portfolio data fed through its Unify platform.
According to the CEO of Netwealth, Matt Heine, the acquisition would also help the company move beyond purely administering platforms and into further parts of the financial advice process. The aim is to create a platform Netwealth describes as Australia’s leading AI-enabled wealth management and adviser productivity platform.
Netwealth’s Strong Financial Position
Timing related to domestic and international syndication of Paradino will follow the record results announced by Netwealth for FY26. Total income climbed 20.6 to $391.1 million, while adjusted EBITDA was up 18 per cent to $192.9 million.
It posted a 16.2% increase in adjusted net profit after tax to $135.4 million, and funds under administration of $135.7 billion, up 20.3% on the year before.
Netwealth guided for net flows of between $18bn and $20bn in FY27, with an EBITDA margin of 47%. Netwealth expects to complete the acquisition of Paradino by the end of October and will finance it from existing cash holdings.
What it means for Australian monetary advice companies
The deal underscores the shift from experimentaiion of AI to everyday financial advice, functionalized in operations. If new technologies are used to automate documentation, communication and compliance-related tasks for advisers, platforms such as Paradino could enable growth without an equivalent increase in administrative burden.
For financial advice firms this might be reduced operation cost and greater capacity for client-facing activity. Netwealth’s investment also reflects an ongoing trend among more-established financial technology firms to seek out acquisition pathways toward artificial intelligence capabilities, rather than just-pure-play AI enterprises that may be building every piece of the software architecture from their own homes.
Source: business news Australia
At Inspirepreneurs Magazine, covering entrepreneurship, business failures, and the human stories behind the world's most ambitious founders. She writes at the intersection of strategy and storytelling.
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