Financial services startup Upwardly has raised a seed round of funding from a clutch of investors, co-founder Prateek Mehta told VCCircle.
The company, run by Triskaidekaphillia Solutions Pvt. Ltd, has raised an undisclosed amount from Sreeram Iyer, chief operating officer at ANZ Bank, Suvo Sarkar, senior executive vice president and group head of retail banking and wealth management at Emirates NBD, and Anita Gupta, head of equity strategy at Emirates NBD and Likemind Ventures.
Upwardly is a personal finance and wealth management service whose platform can be used to research mutual funds, tax-saving ELSS, and other investment products. It supports regional languages such as Telugu and Gujarati, besides English and Hindi.
The development was first reported by financial daily Mint.
The startup will use the funds to expand services, develop its platform to provide holistic advisory, build technology, and augment the team.
“We think that there is a big gap between people’s savings and aspirations, and that is what we are helping bridge. A lot of consumers end up planning for short-term goals [such as] vacations, buying a car, or buying a home,†Mehta said.
The company was founded in December 2015 by Mehta, Prithvi Raj Tejavath, Shashank Agrawal, and Vivek Agarwal. Prior to founding Upwardly, Mehta was senior vice president for fashion e-tailer Myntra’s multibrand business division, while Tejavath was vice president of category management and growth at online furniture e-tailer Urban Ladder. Shashank has previously worked in banking where he served as delivery manager at ANZ and vice president at Barclays Capital, while Vivek was vice president at financial services firm JP Morgan Chase.
Many wealth and expense management, financial advisory, and investment platforms have managed to raise capital over the last six months.
Last month, Mumbai-based personal finance startup Fincash.com, run by Shepard Technologies Pvt. Ltd, raised $100,000 (Rs 64 lakh) in its first round of funding from a clutch of individual investors.
Bengaluru-based Stockal Software Pvt. Ltd, which runs an app-based investment advisory service, has raised its second round of angel funding from a clutch of investors.
A host of other online investment platforms, including Fisdom, Goalwise, Scripbox, and Tauro Wealth, have received funding in the recent past.
The fintech sector has been receiving considerable investor interest in the past few months. A VCCircle analysis showed that since the beginning of the year, 25 fintech startups have raised funds from venture capital investors and the investments have been spread across the segment, including payments, digital lending, personal finance and payment gateway startups.