Two of the country’s richest, who made a fortune in selling food through Jollibee and Mang Inasal, are venturing their money into a new thing—DragonFi, a new online stock trading platform in the Philippines.

The venture sees business partners Tony Tan Cactiong and Edgar Sia investing large sums of money in DragonFi Securities Inc. for the development of an online trading platform that aims to cater to the recent influx of retail investors, borne from the global health crisis.

A large part of the investment—or 90 percent of it—is spent on the workforce around software and technology, with the hopes of rivaling some of the existing online stock brokers in the country.

Speaking on the subject, DragonFi CEO and Co-owner Jon Carlo Lim said that only a third of the existing 125 brokers—more or less 42 of them—provide online trading facilities but do not offer customizable layouts and are reliant on outdated technology, including the dominant ones.

Additionally, Lim highlighted the interest in a modern platform, especially one with “advanced features and analytics,” concerning surging transaction volumes. And if allowed by the regulators, the developing system could facilitate the trading of other assets and foreign markets as well.

Pushed by the fear and uncertainty posed by COVID-19, there had been an implosion of online stock trading accounts in recent years, partly as traders look for control and more flexibility over their investments.

According to the latest exchange data, there had been 1.62 million stock trading accounts in 2021, 70 percent of which were recent additions, versus the recorded 773,187 accounts more or less 5 years prior in 2016.

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