Vinay Ahuja, Co-CEO of 360 ONE Wealth, reflects on a landmark year defined by disciplined growth, bold inorganic moves, and a sharpened focus on execution. Against the backdrop of market volatility and rising client expectations, Ahuja outlines how the firm has doubled down on its core principles—strategic clarity, technology-led delivery, and strong client alignment—while expanding across broking, capital markets, and alternate assets. He discusses the importance of structured lending as a core offering, the deep integration of digital tools across the client lifecycle, and how the UBS and ET Money tie-ups are positioning 360 ONE for the next phase of scale and sophistication in India’s wealth management evolution.
With big clients working with multiple private wealth managers, how do you differentiate your product and advisory proposition? Given that many firms offer similar investment products, how are you creating a unique value proposition?
The year marks several milestones for 360 ONE as we complete our 17th year of operations. As a firm, we have always believed in defining sharp strategic focus areas, creating deep competitive moats and giving disproportionate attention to execution. A culture of constant innovation and high performance encouraged us to take timely decisions on matters of team building, capital allocation and investment in platform and technology. Today, we are even better positioned to sustain the growth trends while scaling up to meet the requirements of varied client segments and drive new business engines.
The company's performance has successfully demonstrated our core tenets of growth, resiliency, and agility in a challenging and volatile FY25. Business years like FY25, which are a unique combination of market highs and sharp corrections amid geopolitical uncertainty, not only test businesses but also help strengthen our belief in the fundamentals of wealth and asset management. For us, it has further reinforced our confidence in the disciplined approach towards client assets and the resilience of our recurring business model.
Inorganic activities
Our recent strategic exclusive collaboration with UBS AG, one of the world's leading wealth managers brings together two visionary firms, powerhouses in the space of wealth management, to create a platform that is truly without parallel. This exclusivity is guided by shared belief in values, ambition and a client-first philosophy. This historic collaboration has three interrelated components, i.e. business collaboration across geographies and business segments, UBS AG's stake in 360 ONE, and integration of UBS India's wealth management business with 360 ONE WAM.
Along with the recent BNK Securities acquisition, we are now even better positioned to grow our presence across broking, equity, capital markets, merchant banking and the corporate treasury space, while fortifying our lead position in Wealth and Alternate Asset Management.
All requisite approvals regarding the ET Money acquisition were received in Q4, and the firm formally has become part of 360 ONE WAM.
How important is lending in your overall proposition? Are you seeing increased demand for credit solutions such as lending, structured loans, or real estate financing, and how are you integrating this into your wealth offering?
Lending is a one of the important pillar of our wealth offering at 360 ONE Wealth, led by our Loan Against Securities (LAS) proposition tailored for ultra-high-net-worth clients. We specialize in structured credit solutions backed by highly liquid securities, typically maintaining a 3x collateral cover to ensure both safety and flexibility. Notably, we have maintained zero GNPA and NNPA over the past 10 years, reflecting the strong credit quality and prudent risk management in our operations.
Our loan book, which is 3-5% of total AUM and stands at over INR 8,050 Cr as of 31st December 2024, demonstrating consistent growth and strong client demand. This underscores the increasing preference for efficient, liquidity-driven solutions that allow clients to access capital without compromising their long-term investment strategies.
Talent scarcity and rising salaries are major concerns—how is your firm addressing this challenge? Are compensation models shifting towards fixed salaries with performance-based bonuses, or is there an increasing preference for incentive-driven structures?
We understand that top talent seeks more than just higher pay—they desire alignment, purpose, and long-term growth. While we continue to offer competitive salaries, our focus is to build a performance culture driven by quality of business and that’s key to our pay designs as well. This approach ensures alignment between individual success and the firm's goals.
Additionally, we are committed to building internal talent pipelines, investing in continuous learning, leadership development, and creating career mobility across roles and functions. Our strong focus on culture, collaboration, and ownership has enabled us to attract and retain top talent, even in a competitive environment.
Our compensation strategy goes beyond pay—it's about creating an ecosystem where talent thrives and is rewarded for delivering excellence.
How are you engaging technology to digitize your business and enhance the client experience? Which areas—whether advisory, reporting, or execution—are being transformed through digital tools and AI?
At 360 ONE Wealth, technology is central to how we scale, personalize, and elevate the client experience. We are leveraging digital tools across the entire wealth management value chain to create a seamless, intuitive, and insight-driven experience for our clients.
Technology is helping us scale without compromising quality. We’ve digitized key client workflows—onboarding, execution, reporting, and compliance—to reduce turnaround times and enhance accuracy. Our reporting platforms have evolved to offer real-time visibility across asset classes, geographies, and performance metrics, helping clients make informed decisions. On the execution side, we’ve digitized onboarding, transaction flows, and approvals to reduce friction and improve speed.
We are also enhancing client experience by adding digital technology for portfolio analytics.
What will be your focus areas?
In our journey over the last 17 years towards becoming a full-stack financial services player around segments of wealth management, public markets including mutual funds, alternates, global business and capital markets, we have remained consistently focused on serving the client needs in the most comprehensive manner possible. Within Wealth, the focus remains on serving the UHNI, HNI and retail affluents with an advisory mindset. Equity broking and investment banking would be key drivers for the capital market segment.
Over the last few years, we have been consolidating in a steadfast manner across business lines, as we look at retaining our leadership position in both Wealth Management and the Alternates space, while making significant strides in the global and capital market segment.
