In Brief
- Animoca Brands has signed a term sheet to form a strategic partnership with GROW Investment Group.
- The deal includes a planned equity investment of up to 15 percent in GROW Digital Wealth.
- The partnership aims to offer both crypto and traditional investment products to family offices and ultra high net worth clients in Asia.
Animoca Brands has announced a proposed strategic partnership with GROW Investment Group, alongside plans to make an equity investment in GROW Asset Management (HK) Limited, which will later be renamed GROW Digital Wealth. The agreement is based on a signed term sheet and remains subject to final documentation and regulatory approvals.
Building a Regulated Digital Wealth Platform
Under the proposed partnership, Animoca Brands and GROW plan to develop GROW Digital Wealth into one of the first platforms in Asia to offer both crypto assets and traditional finance products through a single regulated framework. The platform is designed to serve family offices and ultra high net worth individuals, while enabling independent financial advisors to operate with modern technology and institutional grade products.
GROW Digital Wealth currently holds Type 1, Type 4, and Type 9 licenses from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. These licenses allow the platform to deal in securities, advise on securities, and manage assets under a regulated structure.
Crypto and Traditional Finance Under One Roof
Animoca Brands intends to introduce crypto assets, including real world assets, onto the GROW Digital Wealth platform. At the same time, GROW will bring its curated traditional investment products into the offering. This structure would allow advisors to provide clients with access to both digital assets and conventional financial instruments through a single compliant system.
The goal is to support a hybrid wealth management model that reflects growing interest in alternative assets while maintaining regulatory standards required by institutional clients.
Targeting Asia’s Growing Wealth Market
The partnership is positioned to tap into China’s expanding wealth management market, which includes millions of high net worth individuals with trillions of dollars in investable assets. As investors increasingly diversify away from domestic assets toward global and alternative investments, the companies see demand for platforms that can bridge traditional finance and digital assets.
In addition to product development, Animoca Brands and GROW plan to introduce educational initiatives focused on the convergence of decentralized and traditional finance, helping investors better understand emerging asset classes.
Equity Investment and Strategic Alignment
As part of the proposed transaction, Animoca Brands plans to acquire up to a 15 percent equity stake in GROW Digital Wealth. The investment is intended to align long term interests between the two companies as they build out the platform.
Alan Lau, chief business officer of Animoca Brands, said:
“Hong Kong is emerging as an important hub for regulated digital asset activity in Asia. By partnering with GROW, we aim to connect our Web3 and RWA initiatives with a licensed wealth management platform to further expand access to digital assets. Together we intend to explore compliant, technology driven ways to bring new asset classes and structures to family offices and independent advisors in the region.”
William Ma, founding partner and global chief investment officer of GROW, said:
“We believe the world of wealth management is on the cusp of drastic change with decentralization and disintermediation being two disruptive powerful forces. The successful wealth management models of the near future will be those that combine the best of both traditional and digital offerings, with the strongest alignment of interest to clients by technology. We are excited to have the opportunity to work with a global leader Animoca Brands on this exciting venture.”
