SUMMARY
Orowealth Plans To Use The Funds For Product Innovation, Strengthening Research
Mumbai-based direct mutual funds investment platform Orowealth has raised $1.6Mn in Series A Funding led by Powerhouse Ventures.
Others who participated in the funding round include Money Forward Inc, Social Capital, B Dash Ventures, Anand Chandrsekaran, Airtel ex-CPO, Dinesh Agarwal, founder Indiamart, among others, along with existing investors M&S Partners and GSF.
With the funding, Sri Peddu from Powerhouse Ventures will join the Orowealth Board and Money Forward will take a board observer’s role at the startup.
Orowealth: A Brief Overview
Founded in 2016 by Nitin Agrawal, Vijay Kuppa, and Yogesh Powar, Orowealth offers zero-commission products and personalised financial advice to retail investors with the aim of maximising their returns.
It has existing partnerships with large financial institutions like Sharekhan and Online Trading Academy to provide wealth management solutions to their clients.
Aimed at “making investors richer”, Orowealth offers financial tools for execution, analysis, and advice on various products such as mutual funds, stocks, bonds, insurance, etc. The founders further claim Orowealth as the direct mutual fund investment platform with the longest track record.
It also claims to manage over $73.69 Mn (INR 500 Cr) of assets under advisory and aims to cross $442.17 Mn (INR 3000 Cr) of assets by December 2019, as shared in an official statement by the startup.
Opportunities Ahead For Orowealth
Orowealth plans to use the funds towards product innovation and to strengthen its research capabilities besides focusing on forging alliances with partners who wish to offer tech-enabled wealth products to their customer base. It is also looking to scale up its technology and data sciences capabilities to provide highly personalized investing tools and a high-quality customer experience.
On the funding, Nitin Agrawal, co-founder and CEO, Orowealth, said “We are very excited about this fundraise. We would also like to thank our customers for placing their trust in brand Orowealth and this fundraise gives us an opportunity to serve them even better.”
Prior to this, the startup raised a Seed round of funding from GSF, Powerhouse Ventures, and M&S Partners in 2016.
Commenting on the investment, Sri Peddu said, “In India, the financial services industry is going through a tectonic shift driven by technology and innovation. Through automated investment planning, Orowealth is democratising access to financial products for the retail investor and reducing time-to-market for major banks, large wealth management firms, and brokerage houses.”
Rajesh Sawhney, GSF, added “As Indians become wealthy, they will seek to manage and grow their wealth using new-generation AI platforms like Orowealth. Orowealth’s founding team is its biggest asset.”
Wealth Management: A Booming Segment In Indian Fintech Space
Most recently, we have seen giants like Flipkart and Paytm testing the waters in the financial advisory or wealth management segment as well. Paytm has set up its financial products arm Paytm Money Ltd, to focus on building its investment and wealth management products for its users.
Flipkart too silently launched its investment firm, Sabin Advisors, with speculation indicating that all Flipkart investments may be routed through this setup. This clearly indicates how Flipkart is rooting for both a startup investment firm and a wealth management set up under its camp.
Some of the other startups in the space include Fisdom, WealthTrust, stock market investments platform Tauro Wealth, Tipbazaar, and Scripbox.
Further, the Indian fintech software market is forecast to cross $2.4 Bn by 2020, according to a report by KPMG India and NASSCOM. India is currently home to more than 500 fintech startups. Overall, according to the Inc42 DataLabs Indian Startup Funding report 2017, the Indian fintech industry received $3.01 Bn across 111 deals in 2017.
The sector continues to witness growth, as according to the Indian Tech Startup Funding Q1 2018 report, fintech as a sector witnessed the highest funding in the first quarter. As Orowealth secures funds, the startup is definitely up for more competition in this booming space.
