Market Anyware application designed to assist stock traders

A start-up firm established last year, Market  Anyware, is set to offer tools for investors’ trading decisions, targeting revenue of Bt56 million this year. 

The company plans to expand into other Asia-Pacific markets over the next three years, starting with Japan and Hong Kong, followed by Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam. 

Niran Pravithana, founder and chief executive officer of Market  Anyware, said the firm offered programs for smartphones, tablets and personal computers to assist investors with their decision-making for stocks and financial trading. 

The Market Anyware program is offered to both individual investors and brokers. The company also offers training on how to do stock trading. 

The program supports iOS and Android for smartphones and tablets as well as Windows and Mac OS for the personal-computer version. 

“We spent two years to research and develop this program. The program was invented when I was running Apricot Ion, a digital marketing agency, two years ago. The demo version came out one year later, and then last year the commercial version was launched. 

“As of now, we have had a total of 500,000 downloads, of which 280,000 were by individual investors and the rest by brokers. There are around 3,500 concurrent users per second,” Niran said.

The two brokers using Market Anyware are SCB Securities and Kasikorn Securities. By the end of this year, the company aims to have three more brokers using Market Anyware. 

“Our revenue model is called ‘freemium’, under which we offer Market Anyware with basic features free of charge. To use advanced features, customers will be charged. 

“We also earn revenue from providing training for people who want to learn how to trade efficiently, especially with the use of the Market Anyware program. 

For now, revenue consists of training, broker services, and services for individual investors at a ratio of 50:30:20,” Niran said.

The company aims to expand its services to countries in the Asia-Pacific region, starting by the end of this year with Japan. 

“To go abroad, we need venture capital and strategic partners, for research and development and financing for market expansion. We need US$2 million for further R&D, while we need $2 million to $4 million for market expansion in each country. For financial venture capital, we require local partners in each country, since they know their markets well,” Niran said.

The firm has not yet set a revenue target for overseas operations. 

The company plans by the end of this year to set up a laboratory in Vietnam for research on artificial intelligence with an investment of $1 million (Bt34 million). 

The AI lab will develop technology to support Market Anyware’s capability to offer so-called robotic or algorithmic trading, which will be much required in the future when Asian financial markets are unified. 

Niran said that according to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, there are more than a million active investors in this country; that is, investors who have traded in the past six months. “There are a lot of opportunities in Thailand,” he said.

The company targets revenue from the domestic market of Bt56 million this year, Bt86 million in 2016, and Bt128 million in 2017. 

Market Anyware has registered capital of Bt5 million and 29 full-time employees, 20 of whom are developers. 

The Market Anyware program now supports 4,000 stocks currently being traded in Thailand, stock-market indices around the world, exchange rates, gold prices, and oil prices. 

“We also offer the Market Anyware Apple Watch Edition, which has 10 per cent of the total features,” Niran said.