Passive investing better bet than chasing quick wins

Entrepreneur sets up platform for saving solutions and other investment options

- Rosalind Ang

Entrepreneur Dhruv Arora used to believe in chasing quick wins in investing, but his first job as an equity trader at UBS taught him that there is no easy path to success. He quickly understood the toll that day trading could take and realised it was not for him: "I experienced the highs and lows of the market first-hand and learnt that, despite the potential for gains, the stress and sleepless nights they brought weren't worth it."

Mr Arora, 39, shifted away from chasing quick wins and never bought into non-fungible tokens or meme stocks, but chose instead to focus on sustainable and passive investing. He started building Syfe, which provides a platform for saving solutions, managed portfolios or self-directed investing, in early 2018, using about $25,000 of his personal assets as the seed capital. He is now chief executive of the company, which launched in July 2019 after receiving its Monetary Authority of Singapore licence. Mr Arora lives in a three-bedroom condo unit in Robertson Quay with his wife, newborn daughter, a helper and two Persian cats. He graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.