GBA Lifestyle News
An elevator convo with Stephanie Ko and Jonathan Cai. See here for more from our Next Up series.
How does your business work?
As a social trading and financial information platform, iMaibo’s aim is to democratize the financial markets. We have created an online platform that is tailor-made for the Chinese retail investor market — we give users access to “top traders” or KOLs on our platform, and allow them to see what trades have been made by the KOLs and to communicate with the KOLs in real time. Some of these KOLs charge a subscription fee, from which we will take a commission. We are also able to monetize through brokerage fees from the trades made by our users.
What do you do?
Jonathan: As the COO , I am responsible for driving business development as well as overlooking iMaibo’s product designs. I also work in tandem with the CEO and CSO to fund raise and maintain a close dialogue with our board of investors.
Stephanie: My main focus areas as Chief Strategy Officer are in business development and fund raising. I actively look for new strategic partners and investors for the company, and help maintain ongoing relations with our existing investors.
How did you get started?
Jonathan: I joined during the very early stages, after meeting Water Cheung, the founder of iMaibo. I was convinced of his vision, the scale of the Chinese market as well as my ability to help grow and lead the business.
Stephanie: I initially thought about starting my own fintech company, but very soon realized how competitive the industry already is. When I met the iMaibo team and saw how well the company was doing, I decided to join them as the CSO to help them grow the business further.
Who are your customers?
Chinese retail investors — 100 million strong and massively underserved. We have over 4 million registered users in China, most of whom are well educated retail investors, between the ages of 25 and 40.
Can you give us a rundown of a day in your working life?
Jonathan: Meetings, firefighting and more meetings.
Stephanie: I attend many tech conferences and networking events to keep myself updated on the latest industry trends, and frequently meet with potential investors and strategic partners. I don’t spend much time in the office, but when I do, I help with things like updating information on our website, editing the pitch deck and reading industry reports.
Where do you see your business in 5 years?
Ideally get listed, just like a number of other successful social trading platforms in the world.
