Online share trading start-up Pearler has added $500 million in investor assets to its platform in less than two years in a feat its founders say partly reflects the enduring lure of the Australian Securities Exchange’s old-school system of beneficial ownership.

Data supplied by Pearler and verified by its underlying institutional broker Openmarkets suggested the platform now administers half a billion dollars in investments on behalf of about 65,000 mostly Millennial and Generation Z customers.