Anna Haotanto (Singapore Entrepreneur)

Anna Haotanto
Born	23 October 1984
Education	Bachelor in Finance and Quantitative Finance
Alma mater	Singapore Management University, Hwa Chong Institution
Known for	The New Savvy

Anna Vanessa Haotanto is the founder of The New Savvy, Asia’s leading financial and career platform for women. She was a self-made millionaire by 29 years old. Apart from her achievements as an entrepreneur, Anna is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Partner at ABZD Capital and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for Gourmet Food Holdings.

Background

Anna at the launch of the SMU Women Alumni Group in 2016. Photo from Singapore Management University.

Early life

When she was younger, Anna’s family lived in a four-room rented flat in Tampines. Her parents’ textile business had failed during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and they had chalked up about $20,000 in credit card debt. The rent of the flat increased by 30% per annum and that made it difficult for her parents to set aside money for investments. At 21 years old, Anna’s first financial goal was to buy her parents a house before she turned 30.

Education

Anna studied at Hwa Chong Junior College. She then went on to pursue her bachelor’s degree in Finance and Quantitative Finance at Singapore Management University (SMU). She attended more finance classes than required just to build up her knowledge in the area. In SMU, she pioneered the Quantitative Finance Club of which she was Vice-President. Additionally, she was the Captain of the varsity soccer team and the Vice-President of the Dance Society.

While juggling classes and co-curricular activities in university, Anna worked part-time as a waitress at Balaclava bar and a retail assistant at Guess. She also gave tuition and interned at a few companies. Anna is known for being frugal, saving her money to help her parents pay off their debt. Since graduating in 2008, Anna founded and spearheaded the Women Alumni group at SMU.

Early career

Following her graduation in 2008, Anna worked at Citigroup in the Corporate and Investment Banking department for a year before moving on to ChinaVest, a boutique private equity firm based in Shanghai, China. She was a banking and equity analyst in both companies.

After leaving ChinaVest, she worked at Business Monitor for a year as an Asia Pacific Account Manager, Banking and Financial Services.

United Overseas Bank (2010 - 2014)

Anna was a relationship manager in wealth management for five years at United Overseas Bank (UOB). While at UOB, she was the top Offshore Senior Client Advisor. Her job at UOB required a lot of cold calls that developed her sales, product and relationship management skills. The job also helped her to purchase a house for her parents, a dream she had since 21 years old. She left UOB in December 2014.

The New Savvy (2015 - present)

Anna Haotanto posing with the logo of her company The New Savvy. Photo from Dollars and Sense SG.

In July 2015, Anna launched The New Savvy, an online finance and career platform for women in Asia. The site hosts free articles, e-books on financial literacy and e-learning courses. The company also hosts events for women to take part in.

Origins

In a 2018 interview, Anna shared that she wanted to set up The New Savvy since 2010 for women to achieve financial independence through financial literacy.

Anna was motivated to set up The New Savvy by her family’s financial situation and her experience doing community service in junior college. She observed cases where women were stuck in abusive marriages because they did not have enough savings or earning capability.

Anna also realised that there was a lack of accessible financial advice that addresses women’s needs. Women's magazines had little to no financial content and financial sites like Bloomberg provided very technical information that was difficult for the layman to understand.

Founding

Anna described the founding of The New Savvy to be challenging, as her background was in banking and finance and she had no training as a technopreneur. She had to learn about website development, content production, digital marketing and publishing from scratch, sometimes working until 4 am every day. She enrolled in a digital marketing course at General Assembly to learn about Google Analytics, Google Search Console and other related tools.

At the time of The New Savvy’s founding, Anna had a comfortable “five-figure income” from her job at UOB. She shared that this fact, coupled with the doubting remarks from others, affected her morale.

However, The New Savvy was well-received after it was launched in 2015. Anna received anecdotes from her site’s readers about how The New Savvy has inspired them to take charge of their finances. To allow “the community to share The New Savvy’s ideals”, the company developed sales merchandise such as posters, caps, notebooks, cards and badges.

Overseas expansion

The New Savvy expanded to Vietnam in 2019. Photo from The New Savvy.

In 2018, Anna expanded The New Savvy overseas. The New Savvy’s international branches are led by appointed country ambassadors.

Year	Month	Country
2019	September	Vietnam
2018	October	India
	April	Philippines
	January	Hong Kong

Conference & personal finance app

Anna Haotanto and The New Savvy Team at The Future is Female conference. Photo from Anna Haotanto's Facebook Page.

The New Savvy’s flagship conference “The Future is Female” was launched in April 2018. The event aims to empower women with personal finance management skills. The New Savvy also has a personal finance app where users can set financial goals and practice budgeting while gaining a deeper understanding of investment styles.

E-learning courses

The New Savvy’s e-learning courses help to educate users about financial management and the different available financial tools. The e-learning courses come with exercises and worksheets to facilitate information retention. The lessons are designed such that one only pays for what they need, which is in line with “[their] ethos of providing maximum value to [the] community”.

Awards & accolades

Year	Award Title	Awarding Institution
2017	LinkedIn Power Profiles 2017 - Founders	LinkedIn
	Her Times Youth Award - Rising50 Women Empowerment	Indonesian Embassy of Singapore
2015	Top Student Award - Salutatorian	Singapore Management University and United Overseas Bank
2013	Full Year Top Offshore Client Advisor Award #1	United Overseas Bank
2012	Full Year Top Offshore Client Advisor Award #1	United Overseas Bank
	UOB Top Treasury Sales Award Full Bank	United Overseas Bank