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Wealthy.in, a Bengaluru-based wealthtech startup, has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round of funding led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI). AWI is backed by ADQ’s venture platform, and managed by Alpha Wave Global (formerly known as Falcon Edge Capital).

New investor Savrola Group and existing investors Venture Highway, Good Capital and Emphasis Ventures also participated in the round.

Founded by Aditya Agarwal and Prashant Gupta in 2015, Wealthy.in’s client assets worth $450 million are currently being managed on its platform. With the latest round of funding, the company plans to penetrate deeper into the Indian market as well as expand in international markets like the Middle East.

“For a long time, we have been known as a country of great savers but not great investors. However, we are seeing signs of a structural shift in the market, where investors want to manage their life’s savings through a diversified pool of products. Through our tech-enabled platform and holistic offering, Wealthy.in is well positioned to lead this market shift,” Aditya said. 

Shifting investing pattern

According to the startup, penetration of wealth management products in India is still in single-digits (8 percent of total wealth) as compared to developed markets like the US (72 percent of total wealth) and China (44 percent of total wealth).

A shifting investing pattern, coupled with a lack of quality service providers, makes it a $20 billion net revenue opportunity, Wealthy.in said.

A lot of apps exist to buy financial products. But for significant investment decisions, investors still seek the assistance of independent wealth management professionals who can inform and handhold them while providing a breadth of financial products. Today, more than 1,500 such professionals across the country claim to use Wealthy.in’s suite of web, mobile apps, and 150+ financial products to focus on client needs and build their portfolios.

“Legacy institutions provide a poor client experience and have flawed incentive structures for wealth management professionals. We are changing the status quo with an ethos that believes in empowering these professionals rather than replacing them,” Prashant said.

“The company has grown 15x since the last fundraise. It is a unique platform that ensures clients get unbiased recommendations and a wide choice of products through wealth professionals they trust,” said Rohan Malhotra, Managing Partner at Good Capital.

Wealthy.in offers its technology free of cost and earns only when a wealth management professional suggests a financial product from its marketplace. This business model frees them up to uncompromisingly focus on building and managing client relationships, as per the company. 

“The combination of a highly diversified pool of investment opportunities and human assistance to cater to investors’ needs is a significant driver of increasing penetration in the wealth management space,” said Anirudh Singh, Managing Director at Alpha Wave Incubation.

“According to our research, the element of human assistance is a globally proven model, which catalyses healthy investment returns while deploying meaningful capital at scale. We were also very impressed with the fact that Wealthy.in is able to demonstrate industry leading monetisation metrics, unit economics, and retention rates.”