Daybreak - How a 4-year-old startup took on wealth management titans with its bold hiring strategy

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

The Indian wealth-management industry is booming and everyone wants a piece of the action. But here’s the twist: as the industry explodes, the people managing all that wealth have become the real prize.In a business that caters not just to the top 1%, but the top 0.01% of India’s elite, having the best wealth managers on your roster isn’t just important—it’s everything.And one four-year-old upstart got that memo early. Neo Group has been on an aggressive hiring spree, planning to add at least 70 new wealth managers this financial year.But why are we talking about a relatively small, young firm and its recruitment plans?Because the strategy is working. Big time.Tune in. Want to attend The Ken's next event on health, fitness and wellness? Buy tickets here. Here's your chance to help us shape the conversation: https://theken.typeform.com/to/bZhqWl2g

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. The Indian wealth management industry is booming. Firms today manage well over a trillion dollars in assets and that figure is expected to double in just five years. So naturally everyone wants a piece of the action. But here's

the twist. As the industry explodes, the people managing all that wealth, well, they have become the real prize. You see, in a business that caters not just to the top 1%, but the top 0.01% of India's elite, having the best

wealth managers on your roster isn't just important, it's everything. And one 4-year-old upstart got that memo early. Neo-group has been on an aggressive hiring spree. It plans to add at least 70 new wealth managers this financial year.

But why are we even talking about a relatively small, young firm and its recruitment plans? Well, because its rather unique strategy is working, big time. So New Group was founded in 2021 by Nathan Jane, who was previously part of the top brass in Idalvised financial services. So the company mainly caters to the creme de la creme of the population that is like the 0.01% of the wealthiest in the country. That's Archijma here. She covers capital markets and fintech for the ken.

Archijma wanted to understand the secret of Neo's rapid success. She wanted to uncover how it managed to secure 40,000 crore in assets under advisory in just a few years. So if I have to take Neu in comparison, we can probably take Aventis's wealth management unit and even, you you know, ASK private wealth. But Aventus has been able to command like 50,000 crores in like assets under advisory in the last 15 years. Like, you know, it was just the wealth management unit for Aventus was established around 2010. And Blackstone backed ASK private wealth, which has been around since 27,

has been able to accumulate about some, what do you say, 9.5 billion, which is definitely more than what New has been able to collect. But considering how New has performed in the last four years, years, accumulative $50,000 worth of assets is no mean feat. That kind of growth is almost unheard of for a player this new.

So what's the secret? Well, turns out it is hiring. But not just getting more people. It's getting the right people at exactly the right time. They essentially wanted people to join their company and essentially to create wealth for their clients.

So what they did was they sort of inverted the economics for a wealth manager. So usually what happens is in a wealth management firm, there is a fixed pay and then there is a variable pay that consists of your bonuses, your annual increments, and other components, etc. And you know, what they decided to do was they decided to give a 60% share of the revenue that they get from their clients to the wealth managers themselves. So it creates an incentive for the wealth manager to sort of, you know, start getting more clients and, you know, it's essentially something that incentivizes the wealth manager in this case.

For context, 60% is nearly double the share most companies offer their wealth managers. It's a pretty sweet deal and has helped Neo bring in some of the best in the business. But that's not all. There's also the fact that its leadership mainly comprises Edelwe's veterans. And that offers a whole other layer of credibility that has really helped give it an edge. In this episode, we go behind the scenes of this rather unique wealth management firm and how it has managed to make a mark so quickly. Hello and welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken.

I'm your host Rahil Filippos and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, every day of the week, my colleagues, Nikda Sharma and I will bring you one story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Tuesday, the 10th of June. Neo isn't like most wealth management companies. You see here, a wealth manager is more like a micro-entrepreneur. That essentially means that they have far more skin in the game than they typically would at a more traditional setup.

So typically these wealth managers are experienced. They typically bring in their own super-rich clientele. So what Neo usually does is they see past experience and past performance. And they also look at their ability to generate reverendal. from the clients that they bring in. So currently there are about 70 to 80 wealth managers at new. And from what I hear is that they are also aggressively looking to expand their wealth management unit.

They are looking to hire more and more people towards their company. But hiring the best in the business can be a double-edged sword. Because while they come in with a lineup of ultra-rich clients, that also means when they eventually choose. to move on from Neo, they'll probably take said ultra-rich clients with them. But while that's not uncommon in the industry, that's not something Neo is worried about, at least not yet. What they have currently is not a very common strategy amongst wealth managers, right? Their differentiated payment structure, that sort of incentivizes the wealth manager to actually bring in more revenue for them.

I mean, it is more similar to how, you know, consulting firms work, like, you know, a KPMG or a Deloitte, right? The partner gets a portion of the profits that are being generated. So with that as an incentive and with them going all out and on hiring, I don't think NEO has a lot to worry about, like, you know, whether, you know, it doesn't really have a lot to worry. Let's face it. Health and fitness can be overwhelming.

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Well, you can shape it. If you have a question for Nisha, Vireen or the Liver Doctor, feel free to send them in. Tickets are live. Hit the link in the show notes to grab yours. There have been a few companies that have tried dipping their toes in Neo's disruptive model. Just take wealth tech platform centricity, for instance.

It introduced a similar model for independent financial product distributors, just last year in 2024, whom the platform shares nearly 70% of its earned commissions with. But Atschisma says the key difference is that Neo's approach is just far more aggressive. For one thing, they have promoter pedigree, right? Because they are being backed by a peak 15. And that itself says a lot about the kind of experience that, you know, the top brass has come with. They can acquire wealth managers at large numbers, which is what they're currently looking to do right now.

This wasn't the first time that Neo was looking to go all out on hiring. They tried the same thing back in 2021 when they also first started. So, and just recently, Sir Shahjikumar DeWakar, who was a former executive at a 361WAM, has now joined Neo to head its wealth management business. So, I mean, it is like, you know, there is quite a lot that has kept the company going. Neo is filling its rank and file with top talent to race ahead. But it knows it can't just piggyback on star performers alone, which is why it's also looking to expand out of India

to places like the US and the Middle East as well. In fact, it roped in the likes of Shahji Kumar Devakar, who Atrejima mentioned a little while ago, to do just that. Devaaker, who spent about a decade at 361, was responsible for expanding the company's business in South India and also headed its international business in the United States. Arab Emirates. Another big reason Neo was able to do all of this is because of its top bras. It really gave it a head start that a lot of other players just did not have.

So a lot of top bras from Neo were from different segments within the Idol Vice group. Like, you know, even the founder himself, Nathan Jane, who is from Intervised Financial Services. So many of them have come in with at least a decade of experience in the wealth management and in the asset management industry. And a good part of that growth can be attributed towards Jane himself because he was sort of credited for the growth of the asset management and the wealth management spaces within Iddlewis itself. So there was just a lot of credibility that was there within the company, right?

When you have like a bunch of executives who have spent a major part of the professional career building the space in India, there is obviously a kind of belief that, you know, okay, these guys will be able to do well. And it's also due to that entrepreneurship bug in them, that you know, okay, I have been able to build a product from scratch. Now it's time for me to build a product that I can do. It isn't just Jain.

Varun Bajapai, the chairman of Neo wealth, spent nearly four years at Edelweiss. Punei Jain, Neo's chief investment officer, was formerly the executive VP at the. company. Multiple other employees holding senior positions at NEO also have had a run at Edelweiss. And of course, having the right experience is important. It can kickstart any business and it certainly has in NEO's case. It was able to get that fast traction because there were clients who were already familiar with Jen's work. That, along with NEO's formula and keeping its wealth managers happy,

could continue to fuel its rise. But that's until rival firms catch on and start mimicking its Code. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras. Head to the Ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. Today's episode was hosted by Rahil Filippo's and edited by Rajiv Sien.