[Funding alert] Wealth management platform Kuvera raises $4.5M in Series A funding

Digital investment advisor Kuvera on Tuesday announced that it had raised $4.5 million in Series A funding from Eight Roads, the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International Limited. This first round of institutional funding will allow Kuvera to build its team and expand its product portfolio.

Co-founder and CEO Gaurav Rastogi told YourStory that the company would add another 25 to 30 members to its team. Last March, the company had raised a $250,000 bridge round from a clutch of angel investors.  

Founded in 2016 by Gaurav Rastogi, Neelabh Sanyal, and Mayank Sharma, Kuvera is a web-based direct mutual fund investment platform. With more than 100,000 users, the company provides access to a range of innovative investment tools designed to help them save and reach their financial goals.

In a statement, Kuvera said it currently manages more than Rs 3,000 crore in mutual fund investments. The Bengaluru- based wealth management platform said it charges zero fees to provide tailored, goal-based financial advice.

Speaking on the investment, Gaurav said,  

“With Eight Roads as an investor, we will continue to innovate and expand our advisory offering across financial products. We have an exciting lineup of product releases this year and are looking to expand our team to build these out even faster.”

Till date, over 75,000 goals have been recorded by Kuvera’s customers as they save to buy a home, purchase a car, or invest in a child’s education. Other features on the platform include family login and mutual fund portfolio consolidation, which are targeted towards advanced investors.

Alokik Advani, Head of Fintech Strategic Investments at Eight Roads, who will join Kuvera’s board, added,

“This is our team’s first investment in India. We are really impressed by Kuvera’s platform, which is at par with the best. We will leverage our close relationship with Fidelity to support Kuvera in serving the Indian consumer.”

Kuvera also claims to be leveraging artificial intelligence to provide better targeted advice to customers, while reducing the cost of accessing multiple financial products through a single digital platform.

Also read: This investment banker duo's Kuvera is cracking down a necessary 'evil' in wealth management

Indian payment players, including PhonePe, Paytm, and MobiKwik, are aggressively doubling down on the wealth management category and are offering mutual funds on their platform. 

One97 Communications, which owns Paytm, launched its mutual funds investment platform, Paytm Money, in September last year while Gurugram-based MobiKwik entered the wealth management space with the acquisition of mutual fund platform Clearfunds in October last year.

Flipkart-owned PhonePe also launched a new wealth management product last month; it started its wealth management arm PhonePe Wealth Services in November last year.

Other startups in the wealth management space have also been attracting investor attention lately. Early this year, Scripbox raised Rs 151 crore as a part of its Series C funding. Other competitors include Nivesh, Groww, Orowealth, and Sqrrl, all of who have raised funding demonstrating investor faith in the space.