26M AUM seems crazy low no?
Just some quick math (assumptions):
If they can get 2% somehow of the 26M AUM, you would have 520k/year. Now compare this to 150k/year salary (average) with 100 employees* → 15M salary costs only.
*according to LinkedIn, seems like a lot to me in relation to the 26M AUM
I suspect a significant portion of Alpian’s losses comes from staff salaries, as previously mentioned. Another major cost likely stems from office space, surprising for a digital bank that offers no physical deposit options. Maintaining such premises doesn’t seem justifiable.
They’re also likely bearing costs for their banking license and third-party service integrations. Technical connections, like those with IBKR, may come with high fees that contribute to ongoing losses.
Although Alpian is backed by a major Italian bank, and these costs may seem minor at group level, if the parent company applies a strict profitability standard, similar to some French management approaches, they may decide to shut down operations if targets aren’t met.
Unless things improve, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Alpian exit the market within the next two years. Ideally, they’d be acquired by a local competitor interested in their tech. But with negative profitability, Alpian isn’t currently an attractive acquisition target.
Update
Upon reviewing their financials, it’s clear Alpian faces serious challenges. Salary expenses total CHF 11 million, and office rentals add another CHF 800’000.
More worrying is the projected cumulative loss of CHF 90 million, with CHF 30 million lost just last year. This suggests the bank is far more indebted than it appears. Smells fishy…
Exactly: And in early 2024 they were talking about approaching 100m AUM.
While in their 2024 annual report they state that they managed to triple the 2023 AUM of 9.05m to 26.26m. Where is the disconnect? Do a lot of people just keep cash in the bank?
They indeed earned 403k on the 26m AUM (1.55%) but had to pay 1.3m to get it.
For salaries and bonuses, they paid 11m to their employees
It seems that the cost of being a bank is 13.97m (general and administrative expenses)
In order to break even, they would need to generate roughly 25m income p.a. for which they would need 1.6 billion AUM (61x the 2024 AUM)
It’s unfortunate.
I like their FX offering and the digital bank service is decent.
But if the cash burn continues, the days are limited.
I like every new player who has the potential to disrupt the market.
But launching an incomplete product wth a lot of insane (meant in a negative context) features is for me personally a deal killer.
I kind of agree. At least they are trying to fill the need for some kind of financial advice for the people with their offer. But maybe it’s not enough. Besides this, there is nothing really groundbreaking. In the investing part, it is yet another “we construct you a stocks portfolio by randomly weighing standard ETFs on regional stock indices for a 0.X% yearly fee” app.
I tried to pay myself from Alpian to Neon and PF. For both Banks I’ve generated a QR that apparently Alpian doesn’t support yet.
So I had to type in all the info by hand. If I’m not mistaken, I had to type the address as well, which is “powered by google”. 
