Macrovue offers a leading-edge platform to invest in thematic portfolios of global companies. The portfolios are constructed using in-house research, giving Australian investors unprecedented access to international markets. The two new hires further bolster Macrovue’s strength in global markets.

Sriram Seshadri, formerly an Associate Director with Macquarie Group and a Senior Developer with Goldman Sachs, brings even more international expertise to Macrovue’s leadership team as its new CTO.

Seshadri has more than 20 years experience building commercially successful software for leading financial institutions. At Macquarie Group, he led teams delivering trading platform solutions for real time trading and for mid-frequency trading strategies across Australian and Asian markets. Sriram also worked as a Senior Software Engineer for Goldman Sachs where he built web solutions for the FICC and Primer Brokerage divisions. He makes the move to Macrovue from a consulting position with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

Maz Zaman, Head of Sales, has an extensive background in leadership, sales and stakeholder management, having successfully led large sales teams at BT Financial Group, Link Advice and CBA. At BT Financial Group, Maz led sales teams of financial advisers in insurance, super, investments and advice. He also managed a team of business bankers at CBA, achieving high sales and service targets.

“Sriram brings a very deep knowledge of international equity markets technology to the team, which will be invaluable as we scale up our operations,” said Sid Sahgal, the CEO of Macrovue.

“We are currently commercialising and marketing our world-class investment platform and expanding it in Australia before we launch overseas. Maz has headed up large sales teams for major financial institutions with extremely impressive results, so we can’t wait to see what he will do at Macrovue.

“Together, Sriram and Maz bring great breadth and depth of talent and expertise to our executive team as we prepare to take Macrovue on the next phase of its global journey.”

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Sid Sahgal

Macrovue, Australia’s first global thematic brokerage and trading platform, has taken the wraps off a new global share trading solution aimed at easing complexity, time, and costs for Australian financial advisers and their clients.

Sid Sahgal, Macrovue CEO said: “We offer the flexibility to create, trade, and rebalance share-based portfolios built from scratch by advisers, choosing from 20,000 securities and ETFs listed on over 18 global exchanges.“
Mr Sahgal noted that a surprising number of advisers are still using manual trading systems (paper and telephones) to buy and sell global stocks.

“Our platform features paperless client on-boarding, one integrated trading platform for global and domestic stocks, powerful performance tracking and sophisticated tax reporting,” he said.

The Macrovue platform features were constructed with the specific needs of advisers in mind.
“Today marks the beginnings of releasing our adviser functionality. Macrovue is finalising the platform to enable data sharing with existing financial planning software.

Instead of placing trades over the phone or via e-mail for clients, advisers now have an off-wrap platform solution that offers a hassle-free experience to trade international shares”.

Mr Sahgal noted that Macrovue is not a wrap platform (Investor Directed Portfolio Service), does not pool funds or combine trades and, most importantly, does not charge FUM fees.

It only charges a flat annual fixed fee per adviser client and low brokerage fees.

“We are delighted to bring a system of this level of functionality to market on behalf of financial advisers seeking a simply easier way to trade global and local securities. Any adviser interested in a free, limited trial of the Macrovue service need only contact the support number on our website,” he concluded.

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Sid Sahgal

Online investment service Macrovue has unveiled a world first online brokerage and trading platform giving Australian investors easy and transparent access to global equity markets.

Based on a thematic approach, investors can access Macrovue’s award-winning financial technology and market-leading research and technical smarts.

“Digital financial technology has helped create a power shift in the investment value chain that elevates individual investors to the same access level as institutions,” said Macrovue co-founder and CEO Sid Sahgal.

“We have purpose-built a platform to directly help everyday Australians who want to buy offshore listed companies or invest in broader global investment themes. To date, these opportunities have been highly intermediated, expensive, or just simply out of reach,” he said.

“Our sights are set firmly on empowering a greater number of investors who want one hassle-free process to execute on their chosen investment idea or theme, acquiring global stocks at low cost, with full performance and tax reporting included”.

Mr Sahgal said the co-founders were led to create Macrovue after scouring available service offerings.

“What we initially discovered were limited ways to access global markets, outside of pooled managed funds or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Even managed account platforms are not equipped to provide investors the capability to directly buy and sell global listed stocks,” he said.

Macrovue is highly cost competitive.

It charges investors a low brokerage fee, and fixed subscription cost to access its proprietary research. The customisable Macrovue platform allows access to over 20,000 companies listed on 18 global exchanges.

Introducing investable macro themes or ‘vues’

Mr Sahgal said Macrovue does the research for investors and helps create portfolios of shares built around global themes and megatrends poised to benefit from long-term structural changes in the global economy.

A team of in-house equity research analysts researches companies around the world to build portfolios of stocks called ‘Vues’. Investors are saved the additional worry of researching foreign stocks with limited information. The website also provides detailed performance tracking and tax reporting.

Macrovue co-founder and Director Dev Sinha, who also leads Macrovue’s Equity Research and Product Development, said each Vue usually consists of 10 stocks.

“An important feature is that our Vues are not managed funds,” Mr Sinha said. “Each stock is visible and the investor is the beneficial owner.”

The company has developed a proprietary multi-factor stock selection model to filter and rank each stock from the more than 20,000 stocks available. This is followed by a fundamental bottom-up analysis of the stocks.

“Thematic investing helps identify industries and companies leveraged towards structural growth, that in turn we would expect to drive revenues and profits.

“Most themes impact value chains which span multiple industries. Done in a balanced fashion, investing on a theme offers a natural diversification across geographies and industries,” Mr Sinha said.

“Thematic investing also enables you to get behind ideas or causes you are passionate about – whether it is clean energy, disruptive technologies, or the rise of luxury brand consumables in China,” he said.

Quality people, processes and technology

Macrovue is one of a few Australian companies to have registered with the Internal Revenue Service in the United States, meaning investors are saved the bother of completing paper forms when buying US company stocks.

A recent senior addition is Mr Clay Carter, a well respected and sought after commentator on world markets and the global economy. Mr Carter brings more than 25 years’ experience as a global portfolio manager investing in international equities.

Mr Sahgal concluded: “We have developed an entirely unique platform. It’s a very exciting time as financial technology is opening up access for self-directed investors to participate with greater ease in the trends driving global capital and equity markets.”

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Macrovue is an online brokerage service using in-house research to construct theme-based portfolios of global companies, giving Australians a unique and easy route to holding international equities. The funding round includes Brendan’s Gatica Investments, high net-worth individuals, and a follow-on investment from AMP New Ventures.

Brendan brings to Macrovue’s board more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, including being a co-founder and the Managing Director of the Select Asset Management Limited group, before its sale to ASX listed OneVue Holdings Limited in August 2014.

As the principal of Gatica Investments, Brendan invests in high-growth businesses in the finance and technology space as well as proving director and adviser services. Brendan will advise Macrovue on its go-to-market, sales and distribution strategies as the company moves from beta to a public launch in the third quarter.

Australian investors need more choice and access to international equities, not only when it comes to investment options but also in terms of the financial service providers available to them.

“Macrovue is an exciting, new company poised to establish itself in a space ripe for competition. I’m very pleased not only to be an early investor but also to be an active driver of the company’s growth,” said Brendan.

“We are in the process of building a world-class investment solution that will give Australian investors unprecedented access to global markets. Brendan with his experience building companies is an invaluable addition to our team and we are excited to learn from him and work alongside him,’’ said Sid Sahgal, the CEO of Macrovue.

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