Case study

Scaling successfully: How the Ruwenzori Invest family office upgraded its tech stack and trebled its AUM

Ruwenzori Invest is a single family office, responsible for managing the wealth of a prominent family with business operations in Central Africa. Since its inception, the family office’s mission has been to deliver best-in-class investment management, with the ultimate goal of preserving the family’s wealth and purchasing power across generations. 

Having redomiciled in Dubai’s International Financial Centre (DIFC) in 2018, the family office was soon ready to take another significant step — upgrading its tech stack to match its new future-facing home in the UAE. The family office began to search for the perfect tech solution to meet its evolving needs. After careful consideration, including the evaluation of at least five different platforms, Ruwenzori Invest settled on Addepar as its long-term tech partner.

So, what were the specific challenges facing Ruwenzori Invest and how did Addepar help deliver solutions?

LOCATION

DIFC (Dubai, UAE), family based in UAE with business operations in Central Africa

ESTABLISHED

Family office 2006, current legal entity 2018

HOUSEHOLDS SERVED

20 family members

CUSTODIANS

4

THE CHALLENGE

Ruwenzori Invest had been forward-looking in its approach to technology, something that set them apart early on. “The family office has always been quite advanced when it comes to tech,” says Yogesh Joshi, CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Ruwenzori Invest. “We still see lots of family offices struggling with Excel spreadsheets to manage their investment portfolios. But we have been using advanced platforms as far back as 2008.”

Despite this, the family office needed to navigate rapid advancements in the financial technology landscape to ensure it continued to meet the changing demands of its clients. When looking to upgrade its tech stack, Ruwenzori Invest aimed to overcome several key challenges.

The legacy system was serving our purpose for some time. But then slowly, slowly, we fell behind technologically.

Yogesh Joshi, CEO and CIO

Outdated and inefficient systems

Outdated systems had become limiting. “The legacy system was serving our purpose for some time. But then slowly, slowly, we fell behind technologically,” says Joshi. This impacted operational efficiency and scalability, as non-intuitive interfaces made processes time-consuming and were an obstacle when adding new users. 

Limiting reporting capabilities

With 20 family members to serve, the team needed flexible, easy-to-use reporting tools. Previous systems lacked customization and made it difficult to quickly produce tailored reports. With a limit on custodian connections, the old reporting tools also required significant manual work to fill in the gaps. 

Scaling complex portfolio management

As the business scaled, so did the operational demands. With four custodians and up to 100 accounts to manage, tracking performance and aggregating data became a growing challenge — especially without a system built to handle that level of complexity. Manual processes were time-consuming and prone to error. 

With Addepar, Ruwenzori Invest experienced:

20

family members served

+2

custodians connected

THE RESULT

Streamlining operations with an intuitive platform

Addressing the challenge of outdated and inefficient systems, Addepar provided an innovative solution that improved daily operations. The platform’s intuitive design simplified workflows and streamlined processes. “Our legacy system was not user-friendly, not easy for a layman to understand and required more of a business analyst background,” says Joshi. 

Abdul Qadir, Investment Analyst, Ruwenzori Invest, noted Addepar’s inherent usability: “Areas such as system navigation and day-to-day usage are quite intuitive.” 

He adds: “That has been one of the biggest advantages compared to the previous system. Even if we introduce the Addepar platform to a new team member, it's so intuitive they can begin to use it within a day or two.” 

For Ruwenzori Invest, this enhanced usability means less time spent navigating complex interfaces and more focus on value-added activities, making investment management more efficient and more effective.

Other capabilities and features have also helped streamline operations and improve user experience, both for the family office and their clients. Addepar’s Client Portal aims to improve transparency and reduce reliance on manual reports. For Ruwenzori Invest, it is providing clients with portfolio access on demand — and from the advisor side, timely access to data is helping with more efficient analysis. 

“I had a recent example when I was out of office last week. A member of the family called me to ask a question about his portfolio,” says Joshi. “I could quickly log in to Addepar through my phone and give him the number.”

Joshi adds: “We are also leveraging the Client Portal for some of the family members who want to be on top of their portfolios and to see it on a regular basis. They're happy that they can see their portfolios whenever they want rather than depending on us to create reports.”

If we introduce the Addepar platform to a new team member, it's so intuitive they can begin to use it within a day or two,

Abdul Qadir, Investment Analyst

Enhancing reporting and data aggregation

Addepar has also advanced the family office's reporting capabilities. The platform provides the flexibility needed to customize reports for each of the 20 family members, allowing individuals to view their portfolio reports when and how they prefer. 


Ruwenzori Invest was also looking to find a reporting system that was easy to use, enabling drag-and-drop or plug-and-play report creation. 

“We wanted something with a good user interface that was easy to navigate,” says Joshi. “We didn’t want something — like our previous system — that required us to apply lots of rule engines and needed endless configuration. We wanted something more plug-and-play, so we could get what we wanted quickly. Addepar provided this.” 

Addepar’s reporting tools have helped streamline reporting processes for the firm, saving time and enhancing the client experience.


The family office was also able to expand its custodian connectivity from two to all four, reducing manual data entry requirements. “The additional data feeds we got for some of the custodians, which we did not have in our earlier platform, is helping us a lot. It is saving a lot of time in the manual processing of transactions,” says Joshi. 

“It is letting us concentrate on what we are supposed to do, which is managing the money for the family, managing investments.”

Scaling successfully

Addepar also provided solutions for managing complex portfolios at scale without requiring a disproportionate increase in headcount. While the improvements in operational workflows and reporting helped free the Ruwenzori Invest team to focus more on analysis and strategic investment management, rather than extensive manual data aggregation, processing speeds were also improved — and the SaaS-based model enabled remote access and collaboration. Together, this has all helped contribute to the family office trebling its assets under management, with the addition of only two new members of the team. 

Since transitioning to Addepar, the family office is now better positioned to adapt to evolving demands of a rapidly changing financial landscape.