When we founded The Singularity Group in 2017, we had one vision in mind: to identify the underlying success factors of technologies away from buzzwords and tailor solutions to make innovation investible. Two years have passed by at the speed of (high)light(s). We asked our founders Evelyne Pflugi and Tobias Reichmuth and board members Eric Sarasin and David Orban about the journey - from achievements to learnings and into the future.

Let's start with the take aways: What were the biggest surprises or learnings when starting a company?

Evelyne Pflugi: "Being a young company, everything takes longer and costs more than anticipated - that's at least how I perceive it. But then - very often the opposite surprises you. We have learned as well that keeping the team small, agile and rather junior can be a better way to pave the way to success than fast growth and an "aged" status team. When it comes to the investment strategy, the Nasdaq Singularity Index portfolio shows strengths and contribution in areas we didn't expect - e.g. large-cap bluechip companies are strong contributors to returns."

Eric Sarasin: "When we set up the strategy and built the database, we knew about the sheer potential - but the actual outcome is more than we expected. Our database actually gives us additional ideas and inputs for even better investment strategies to come. Another take-away: In the beginning we struggled a bit with our positioning and didn't always get our USPs across to potential investors - but that's also part of actual "pioneering" with solutions that haven't been on the market before and that re-shape the Swiss investing landscape."

What are some of the achievements you want to highlight?

Evelyne Pflugi: "One of our greatest achievements has been to sharpen the core strengths of our database and business model. For me the greatest delight in what we do is the people, the network and the caliber of partners that we have been able to attract. The fact alone that all those people - from our Expert Advisory Board to clients, investors and anyone who has been following us along the way - support us in bringing a new approach to indexes and rules-based investing to life, is a true honor and much appreciated."

Tobias Reichmuth: "Our approach is an innovation itself. We allow investors to profit from exponential technological development across all sectors, industries and markets. And this independent from hypes and with daily liquidity." 

David Orban: "When a company says they are not in tech, I feel sorry they use candle light instead of electricity, and passenger pigeons instead of email. But of course they don't: Every company is a technology company today. If they are, how can you understand which are leading, and have the potential of a sustainable differentiation? That is what we achieve with our products and it's unique."

Which leads us to the future - what do you have upon your sleeves?

Evelyne Pflugi: "We are about to add exposure to innovation to our funnel, which means we'll partner with Artificial Intelligence experts to make our database and business model even "smarter". At the same time and through this, we learn more about the data we constantly collect - this will make us an even better partner for tailored investment strategies."

And of course, we will continue organizing insightful events about the tech of today - don't miss the Exponential Finance Summit in November!

By The Singularity Group - 10/04/2019