Dezerv, a financial advisory and investment management platform, has raised $21 million (Rs 167 crore) in a Series A round of funding, led by Accel Partners. Existing investors Matrix Partners and Elevation Capital also participated.
According to a statement, the startup will primarily use the capital towards new investment opportunities and hiring additional professionals.
"As the information asymmetry increases when it comes to investing and financial products, the need for domain experts managing money and delivering sustainable returns has only increased," said Abhinav Chaturvedi, partner at Accel Partners.
The firm was launched in April last year by former IIFL Wealth executives Sandeep Jethwani, Vaibhav Porwal and Sahil Contractor.
“The fund raise gets us closer to delivering investment expertise to working professionals. The need for better investment outcomes is important in the current volatile environment,” Jethwani said in a statement.
The Matrix-backed platform goes beyond providing access to vanilla mutual funds and offers a unique ‘Integrated Portfolio Approach’ (IPA) combined with white-glove expert advisory. The company claims that more than Rs 800 crore has been invested via its platform.
It claims to help users maximize returns while controlling the downside, with the right portfolio mix and also unlock access to new asset classes, which are currently available only to high net-worth individuals.
“Indian wealthtech is at a tipping point with an influx of new investors over last few years, who now need advice to navigate uncertain markets. Dezerv is off to a fast start, with assets under management (AUM) growing 7 times over the last 6 months.
The company had raised Rs 51 crore in its seed round of funding led by early-stage venture capital fund Matrix Partners India and growth stage investor Elevation Capital in September last year.
Other funded players in the online investments segment include Groww, WealthBucket, Nivesh.com and Scripbox Advisors.