SUMMARY
The pre-seed funding round was led by Burman family office, Shantanu Agarwal and Arun Jain
The round also saw participation from angel investors such as Rajesh Razdan, Devesh Sachdev, Ankush Nijhawan, Purrshottam Bhaggeria, among others
Centricity plans to onboard 1000-1500 IFAs in the next 24 months with a cumulative transaction value of at least $1 Bn
Wealthtech platform Centricity has raised $4 Mn in a pre-seed funding round led by Burman family office, LNJ Bhilwara Group’s Shantanu Agarwal and Polaris Software founder Arun Jain.
The round also saw participation from other angel investors such as Devesh Sachdev of Fusion Microfinance, Devtron Labs’ Rajesh Razdan, TBO cofounder Ankush Nijhawan, Filatex Group’s Purrshottam Bhaggeria, Abhay Agarwal of the Burman family office as well as Pravin Jain and Navin Jain from the Supercircle family office.
The startup will use the funding to strengthen teams across product and sales. It will also use the investment to shore up its tech vertical and spend more on brand awareness.
Speaking on the announcement, investor Arun Jain said, “The new age banker turned IFA (independent financial advisor) not only seeks access to investment products but also a technology platform that helps him compete with large wealth management institutions. Such a platform helps the IFA automate client journeys such as onboarding, KYC, risk profiling, transaction, reporting and review thereby reducing overhead costs of manpower and infrastructure. Lower costs translate to better earnings potential.”
Founded in 2022 by Manu Awasthy, Centricity is a wealthtech startup that offers plug-and-play solutions for IFA professionals looking to make the transition to the wealth management space.
So far, the startup has developed a comprehensive investech platform which offers a gamut of services including a full spectrum investment product marketplace, digital transactional capabilities as well as deep portfolio reporting and monitoring capability.
In simple words, Centricity offers a private wealth management platform for its high-net-worth clients.
It aims to build a full-stack open source financial service platform largely targeted at IFAs, external asset managers and single-family offices to manage investment portfolios efficiently.
“The roadmap for the next 24 months includes developing in-house asset management capabilities and a capital market non-banking financial company (NBFC). Our long-term vision is to establish Centricity as India’s largest B2B2C financial distribution brand with technology being at the core of a one-stop financial product shop for wealth managers and end investors,” adds Centricity CEO and founder Manu Awasthy.
In a statement, the startup said that it plans to onboard 1000-1500 IFAs in the next 24 months with a cumulative transaction value of at least $1 Bn. The startup also plans to integrate life and non-life insurance products as well as mortgages to its wealthtech platform.
The overarching Indian wealthtech space has been witnessing renewed interest from investors in the past couple of months. Earlier last month, wealthtech startup Liquide raised $2.2 Mn in a pre-seed funding round led by M Venture Partners. Prior to that, another wealthtech startup Dezerv bagged $21 Mn in its Series A funding round led by Accel, with participation from Matrix Partners India and Elevation Capital.
In a bid to bolster its offerings, wealthtech platform Scripbox also acquired Pune-based Wealth Managers for an undisclosed amount in August. Another fintech startup Credit Fair raised $10 Mn in seed funding round last month to launch its wealthtech platform, Credit Fair Capital.
The Indian wealthtech market was pegged at around $20 Bn in FY20 and is projected to triple to nearly $63 Bn by FY25.
Update | September 14, 1:15 PM
Ankush Nijhawan’s designation changed from CEO to cofounder.
