WealthNavi Inc. (WealthNavi)

ConfidenceLikelyUpdated2026-07-30Review by2026-11-15Sources7Machine-translatedOriginal (JA)

On this page

Wiki route

This entry sits under payment-firms INDEX. Read it against Rakuten Group financial businesses (Rakuten FG) for peer / contrast context and Three-Layer Structure of Japan's Stablecoin Regulatory Regime (JPYC, USDC, Project Pax) for the broader system / regulatory boundary.

TL;DR

The largest domestic robo-advisory-type asset-management service. Assets under management surpassed 2 兆円 (announced 2026-05-12), with approximately 41.6 万 users (end of 2024-09 ). Founded by 2015-04-28 Kazuhisa Shibayama (formerly of McKinsey, from the Ministry of Finance), with service starting 2016-07 . Listed on the TSE Mothers 2020-12-22 (securities code 7342, now Growth). 2024-12-12 MUFG Bank mufg announced full subsidiarization via a tender offer (TOB) ★ ── a turning point at which the pioneer of domestic robo-advisory is integrated into a megabank’s AI financial ecosystem.

1. Company overview

Formal name: WealthNavi Inc. English name: WealthNavi Inc. Securities code: TSE Growth 7342 (2020-12-22 Mothers listing → moved to Growth in the 2022-04 market-segment review) Establishment: 2015-04-28 Service start: 2016-07 Head office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Representative: Kazuhisa Shibayama (founder, Representative Director and CEO) Business type: Financial instruments business (investment-management business / investment-advisory and agency business) / Type I financial instruments business

Founder background

The following table is scoped to public primary sources (mufg.jp, corp.wealthnavi.com, prtimes.jp). It restates licence / structure / product boundaries from those materials and does not invent market share, ranking, or unstated numerical claims.

Item Content
Name Kazuhisa Shibayama
Background University of Tokyo Faculty of Law, INSEAD MBA
Career Ministry of Finance (former Ministry of Finance) → McKinsey & Company → founding
Founding motivation Advocating “supporting the prosperity of the working generation,” introduced US-style robo-advisory (Betterment / Wealthfront) to Japan

Main business figures (based on public information)

The following table is scoped to public primary sources (mufg.jp, corp.wealthnavi.com, prtimes.jp). It restates licence / structure / product boundaries from those materials and does not invent market share, ranking, or unstated numerical claims.

Item Figure
Assets under management Surpassed 2 兆円 (announced 2026-05-12, domestic robo-advisory No.1)
Number of users Approx. 41.6 万 (end of 2024-09 , +9% year-on-year)
Main investment targets Centered on 7 US-listed ETF issues (VTI / VEA / VWO / AGG / GLD / IYR / TIP series)
Fee Annual rate of 1.1% of assets under management (tax included, the portion over 3000 万円 is 0.55%)

Main partnership services (white-label deployment)

WealthNavi Inc.
  ├── WealthNavi (own direct sales) ── flagship brand
  ├── WealthNavi for SBI Securities ── sbi-hd partnership
  ├── WealthNavi for Monex ── monex-group partnership
  ├── WealthNavi for SBI Sumishin Net Bank
  ├── WealthNavi for Sony Bank ── Sony FG-affiliated
  ├── WealthNavi for Yokohama Bank ── Concordia FG-affiliated
  ├── WealthNavi for ANA
  ├── WealthNavi for JAL (for a time, now scaled back)
  └── WealthNavi for TOKYU POINT

Key chronology

The following table is scoped to public primary sources (mufg.jp, corp.wealthnavi.com, prtimes.jp). It restates licence / structure / product boundaries from those materials and does not invent market share, ranking, or unstated numerical claims.

Year/Month Event
2015-04-28 Kazuhisa Shibayama establishes WealthNavi Inc. (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo)
2016-07 “WealthNavi” service officially released
2017~2018 White-label partnerships with SBI Securities, SBI Sumishin Net Bank, Sony Bank, etc. expanded
2018 Assets under management surpassed 1000 億円
2019 Assets under management surpassed 2000 億円
2020-12-22 TSE Mothers listing (securities code 7342) ── the first IPO of a domestic robo-advisory
2021 Assets under management surpassed 5000 億円
2022-04 Moved to the Growth Market in the TSE market-segment review
2024-01-11 Assets under management surpassed 1 兆円 (first for a domestic robo-advisory) — approx. 7 years 5 months from the 2016-07 release
2024 Response to the start of the new NISA system (supporting both the tsumitate investment quota and the growth investment quota)
2024-12-12 MUFG Bank mufg announced full subsidiarization via a tender offer (TOB)
2025-01-20 MUFG Bank TOB consummated (tender-offer price 1,950 円, total approx. 997 億円) → 2025-03 squeeze-out / TSE Growth delisting

2. Business segment map

The following table is scoped to public primary sources (mufg.jp, corp.wealthnavi.com, prtimes.jp). It restates licence / structure / product boundaries from those materials and does not invent market share, ranking, or unstated numerical claims.

Segment Service Characteristics
Individual asset management WealthNavi (own) Fully automated / long-term diversified investment / centered on US ETFs
Partnership (B2B2C) WealthNavi for SBI / Monex / Sony Bank / Yokohama Bank, etc. White-label supply, leveraging partners’ customer bases
NISA support Omakase NISA Integrated management of the tsumitate investment quota + growth investment quota
Functional options Auto-deposit / rebalance / DeTAX (tax optimization) US robo-advisory-compliant functions
Advisory Life-plan diagnosis / target-amount simulation Onboarding for the investment-inexperienced

Investment policy

  • Diversified investment based on Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT)
  • Centered on US-listed ETFs (combinations of VTI / VEA / VWO / AGG / GLD / IYR / TIP series)
  • 5 levels of portfolio according to the customer’s risk tolerance
  • Auto-rebalance (1 times per half-year + triggered upon deviation)

Competitive position

The following table is scoped to public primary sources (mufg.jp, corp.wealthnavi.com, prtimes.jp). It restates licence / structure / product boundaries from those materials and does not invent market share, ranking, or unstated numerical claims.

Player Parent company Scale of assets under management (estimated, varies by point in time) Characteristics
WealthNavi → MUFG subsidiarization (announced 2024-12 ) Surpassed 2 兆円 (2026-05) Domestic robo-advisory No.1
THEO Money Design Several-hundred-billion-yen scale docomo partnership (THEO+ docomo)
SBI Wrap within sbi-hd Expanding Capturing group customers
Rakuten Securities Wrap within rakuten-fg - Group-integrated management
Monex Asset Management monex-group - ON COMPASS, etc.
Daiwa Fund Wrap daiwa-sg Major face-to-face wrap For the wealthy
Nomura Fund Wrap nomura-hd Industry-largest wrap scale Centered on face-to-face for the wealthy

MUFG subsidiarization (announced 2024-12-12) ★

  • Tender offeror: MUFG Bank (MUFG Bank, mufg 100% subsidiary)

Note: Speculation regarding the continuation feasibility / strategic significance of the white-label partnerships (SBI / Monex / Sony Bank, etc.) after full MUFG subsidiarization is isolated in .opinions/JapanFG/wealthnavi.md (no verifiable primary information).

Business-model characteristics

  • Uniform fee of 1.1% (tax included): separate from the investment-trust management fee, a stock-type revenue linked to assets under management
  • Customer-acquisition cost (CAC): suppressed through white-label partnerships; own direct sales centered on digital advertising

4. Regulation / policy

  • Supervisory authority: Financial Services Agency (FSA)
  • Business registration: Type I financial instruments business operator / investment-management business operator
  • Member associations: Japan Securities Dealers Association, Japan Investment Advisers Association
  • Customer-asset preservation: Trust preservation (segregated management at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, etc.)
  • Recent policy issues:
    • 2024-01~ new NISA system: a tailwind for the entire robo-advisory industry (expansion of the tsumitate + growth investment quotas)
    • 2025~ Principles for Customer-Oriented Business Conduct: strengthened demands for transparency in fee levels / management-performance disclosure
    • 2024~ financial-services intermediary business system: regulatory arrangement of white-label partnerships

Sources


[!info] Verification status confidence: likely (based on public information, Wikipedia + official IR + timely disclosure 2026-05-19). Assets under management / number of users vary by point in time; for the latest figures refer to WealthNavi IR Quarterly. The details of business integration after MUFG subsidiarization (announced 2024-12-12) require supplementation in 2025~2026 .

#JapanFG#robo-advisor#fintech

Discovery

Keep reading

Related

Read next

Links here