Winners rationale

Avendus Wealth Management is the wealth management arm of Avendus, a KKR-backed Indian financial services group. In just a decade since its launch, it has firmly established itself as a trusted advisor to UHNI/HNI families, diligently following its foremost guiding principle of “doing the right thing by the client”, whatever the circumstances at hand.

The full-service wealth management platform offers products and advisory across asset classes, family office services, and wealth lending solutions, to the UHNW and HNW segments in India. Avendus’ DNA is, first, to be close to its clients and understand their needs, and second, to ensure that every tailored product or solution is top quality, based on strong convictions backed by internal research. Its mantra: not to put on its platform anything that it does not deeply understand.

Avendus Wealth Management’s fierce commitment to ethics and fiduciary responsibilities has held it in good stead with the UHNW and HNW individuals in India. Its strong focus on an open architecture model, collaboration with high quality managers and businesses, and its conscientious approach — both to products and to client onboarding and servicing — have stood out among peers.

The firm has built several proprietary due diligence and evaluation frameworks to make its product curation and advisory processes rigorous and watertight, helping it to offer clients top-class products and solutions. Avendus’ rigour in curation and advice, coupled with the ability to connect those seeking private capital funding with relevant investors, has helped this independent wealth manager avoid a growth-at-all-costs mentality, which may have put it at odds with conducting business in an ethical and responsible manner.

Over the last five years, Avendus has focused hard on its alternative investment offerings, building a strong practice that has played a crucial role in developing a market for this rising asset class in India. Avendus curates high-quality and innovative deals in venture capital, venture debt and private equity, through its extensive in-house research and an industry network of more than 100 private equity and 50+ venture capital funds. It has succeeded in partnering with private businesses with significant institutional backing or high-quality PE/VC/venture debt managers to come up with best-in-class product ideas. Avendus focuses on an open architecture model, carefully handpicking partners, and thus avoiding any potential conflicts that could otherwise arise.

In an emerging market such as India — which lacks a wide and formal process of access to capital for small and medium-sized businesses, especially the start-up community — Avendus’ deep network and reach to business owners and entrepreneurs comes in handy in sourcing private investment opportunities that may not register on the radar of larger full-service banks and other wealth managers.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on India, Avendus was able to bring to market high-quality and innovative deals in the private segment. The firm also used the period of disruption to enhance its capabilities across various offerings. It scaled up its investment solutions and family office offerings, launched a new lending proposition and strengthened its direct equities offering, keeping in mind the evolving needs and future expectations of clients.

In terms of its people strategy, Avendus firmly believes that its services are only as good as its people. It hires experienced senior staff who have worked at marquee institutions across the globe. Moreover, its deep entrenchment in other businesses such as investment banking, asset management and credit solutions ensures that clients can capitalise on the collective intellect of the organisation.

For these multiple reasons, Avendus wins Asian Private Banker’s Best Independent Wealth Manager – India Domestic award for 2020.