The funds will be used to grow the team, create and expand the startup’s invest-tech platform, and reinvent the investment experience for working professionals in India.
Dezerv., a new-age, expert investment platform located in Mumbai, has secured $7 million in a seed round led by Elevation Capital and Matrix Partners India, with participation from Whiteboard Capital and Blume Founders Fund.
In addition to this tech founders like Kunal Shah (CRED), Ramakant Sharma (LivSpace), Asish Mohapatra and Ruchi Kalra (Ofbusiness), Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal (Meesho), Varun Dua (Acko), Nitin Gupta (Uni), Anurag Sinha (OneCard), Shashvat Nakrani and Suhail Sameer (BharatPe), Revant (WhiteOak) also participated.
The funds will be used to expand the startup’s staff, launch and develop its invest-tech product platform, and re-define the investing journey for active professionals in the country.
Sandeep Jethwani, Vaibhav Porwal, and Sahil Contractor, former IIFL Wealth Senior Managing Partners, founded dezerv. in April 2021 to provide a novel strategy and platform to enable disadvantaged Indian professionals to access investing knowledge.
Dezerv. will provide an Integrated Portfolio Approach (IPA) paired with white-glove professional guidance, in addition to vanilla mutual funds. This will allow users to maximize returns while limiting risk with the proper portfolio composition, as well as get access to new asset classes that are present exclusively available to high-net-worth people, such as selected, well-distributed high-yielding bonds and emergent high-growth companies.
“Dezerv. will use the digital adoption and sustainable financial infrastructure of post-pandemic India, along with decades of our experience to deliver world-class investing to Experts,” stated the founders, Sandeep, Sahil, and Vaibhav. We’re delighted to introduce our innovative Integrated Portfolio Approach, which goes beyond picking individual mutual funds to provide high-performing portfolios while keeping risk under control.”
According to the company, the Indian market has roughly 30 million working professional households that are drifting without a clear answer for managing their rising wealth. DIY platforms, on the one hand, provide a marketplace for items, but they lack sophistication in advising. Traditional wealth consultants, on the other hand, focus solely on the high and ultra-high total wealth segments, ignoring the accomplished and worthy professionals.
Dezerv. intends to make investing simple for its clients by delivering a curated portfolio combination—handpicked for the individual investor and dynamic to keep up with changing market conditions—through its Integrated Portfolio Approach, which was developed by investment professionals. The service is now “invite-only”; users can seek to join a growing club of investors by filling out an application on the platform’s website.
“We are strong believers in the financialization of savings and democratizing access to financial products for consumers across the affluent spectrum,” Mridul Arora, Partner, Elevation Capital, said. Dezerv. wants to take advantage of both of these tailwinds by focusing on technology and being the go-to platform for developing affluents as they traverse their savings journey and construct a portfolio tailored to their specific needs and life goals.”
“Digital-native wealthy investors are about to embark on a journey to diversify their portfolio across asset classes. They require a solutions-oriented approach developed by professionals, which dezerv. intends to provide. Sandeep, Sahil, and Vaibhav are the most equipped to tackle this challenge, and we’re thrilled to collaborate with them,” said Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix India.