Chinese fintech company Ant Financial Services and U.S. asset management firm The Vanguard Group have established a joint venture to provide retail investment advisory services in China, the companies said in a statement on Saturday.

The announcement, which comes more than six months after the joint venture appeared in an online national registry, said the company would provide customized services for investors based on individual risk preferences, time horizons and investment objectives.

The service will accept minimum investments of 800 yuan (113 U.S. dollars) and will be accessible through Ant Financial's Alipay app, the statement said.

Vanguard, which has more than five trillion U.S. dollars in assets under management, launched a wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE) in China in May 2017.

Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, currently operates Yu'ebao - the world's largest money market fund. Launched as a third-party payment provider, Yu'ebao held 1.13 trillion yuan in net assets as of the end of 2018.

"We are delighted to bring this important service to more people in China and look forward to supporting the sustainable growth of the wealth management industry," said Peter Zhang, CEO of the joint venture.

Investment and wealth management has seen increased popularity among Chinese. The ratio of adults who had put their money into the wealth management market averaged 47.81 percent in 2018, up 1.84 percentage points year on year, while the ratio in rural areas rose 3.32 percentage points to 36.11 percent, data from the People's Bank of China showed.

(With input from Reuters, Xinhua)