Baker & McKenzie advised Acorns Grow Australia Limited (AGA) on the establishment of its micro-investing product platform in Australia. AGA is the product of a joint venture between Acorns, Inc. and Instreet Investment Limited. The aim of the joint venture is to develop and launch the Acorns product in Australia.

Baker & McKenzie lead partner, Astrid Raetze explained the platform: "The Acorns product is an innovative smartphone application that allows customers to invest small amounts of money into professionally developed portfolios of exchange traded funds. Money is invested either through 'round-ups' of everyday purchases made with a credit or debit card linked to the Acorns product, or through customer contributions.

"The customer is able to select an investment portfolio employing a strategy that matches their investment risk profile."

Baker & McKenzie co-lead partner, Adrian Lawrence explained the innovation behind the platform: "The Acorns product has been successfully launched in the USA, and the joint venture draws upon Acorns, Inc.’s proprietary technology which enables customers to invest as little as $0.20 into a portfolio of exchange traded funds, and Instreet’s expertise in the Australian financial services sector, which has enabled the platform to develop a unique set of portfolios suitable for first-time retail investors, with the goal of launching the product in Australia."

When asked about the legal dimension of the deal, Ms Raetze said: "The product is targeted to retail clients. Our role has included assisting with the establishment of the joint venture (including drafting of relevant documents), advising on how best to structure the platform from a regulatory perspective, and drafting the relevant documents necessary to establish the platform, including the constitution, product disclosure statement and associated agreements."

The Baker & McKenzie team assisting Ms Raetze and Mr Lawrence included  Sam Appleton (Senior Associate, Financial Services & Funds); Caitlin Whale (Senior Associate, IT & IP); Allison Manvell (Senior Associate, IT/Communications); Dharshi Harindra (Associate, IT/Communications); and Mitchell Thorp (Associate, Financial Services & Funds).

Ms Raetze further commented: "We are experiencing a growing trend of assisting a number of client businesses in the FinTech space, who are launching software to provide financial services."