[Funding alert] dezerv raises $21 mn in Series A round

Wealth management startup dezerv has raised $21 million in its Series A funding round from Accel Partners along with participation from existing investors Matrix Partners India and Elevation Capital.

The startup plans to use the funds to strengthen the digital product, build a talent pool and focus on brand awareness.

The Mumbai-based dezerv was founded in 2021 by former IIFL executives Sandeep Jethwani, Vaibhav Porwal and Sahil Contractor, it is a wealth management platform.

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The startup has already amassed around ₹800 crore in assets, and is targeting the assets invested on the platform to reach $1 billion in the next 12-18 months.

“This fundraise is one more step towards our mission of delivering real investment expertise to India’s working professionals. The need for better investment outcomes has never been felt as acutely as in the current volatile environment. The overwhelming response in our early days coupled with this fundraise from three of India’s top venture capital funds further strengthens our mission. We’re excited to welcome Accel to the partnership, as we are with the continued support from Matrix Partners India and Elevation Capital”, said, Sandeep Jethwani, Co-Founder of dezerv.

Abhinav Chaturvedi, Partner, Accel said, “We’re excited to partner with dezerv. in their journey to provide investment expertise to working professionals in India. As the information asymmetry increases when it comes to investing and financial products, there is a greater need for domain experts managing money and delivering sustainable returns. We believe that the team at dezerv. with decades of experience is best equipped to fill this gap that working professionals in India face.”

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Mridul Arora, Partner, Elevation Capital said, “We partnered with dezerv. in their seed round based on the belief that they were perfectly poised to deliver on two of our deeply held convictions – financialisation of savings and democratising access to financial products. In a short period of time, dezerv. is quickly developing into a go-to platform for the emerging affluent in India. We cannot think of a better team to keep building on this vision and are thrilled to deepen our partnership in this fundraise”

“Indian wealthtech is at a tipping point, with an influx of new affluent investors over the last few years, who now need expert advice to navigate uncertain markets. dezerv’s expert-led platform spans across asset classes and provides custom solutions, to create a portfolio for long-term investors”, said, Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix India.

In September 2021, Dezerv had raised $7 million in its seed funding round led by Elevation Capital and Matrix Partners India.

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About dezerv

Founded in April 2021- dezerv. aims to give successful professionals access to high quality investing expertise which has been the unfair advantage of the ultra-wealthy.

The invite-only wealthtech platform combines domain expertise and cutting edge tech to create high-performing long term portfolios and also provides exclusive investment opportunities for their members. Within 90 days of its product launch, dezerv. has thousands of transacting members.

The dezerv. platform offers:

1. Integrated Portfolio Approach™ – personalized multi-asset long term portfolio.

2. Unique access to pre-IPO, global investments, and alternate assets.

Sandeep Jethwani, Vaibhav Porwal and Sahil Contractor are the founders of dezerv. The trio were part of the early-founding team at IIFL Wealth before they came together to form dezerv. With experience of over 50+ years between them, they have managed assets worth over INR 50,000 crore for 6500 wealthiest families in the country.

The ‘expert’ investing tech platform raised $7 million in a seed funding round co-led by Elevation Capital and Matrix Partners India, with participation from reputed investors such as Whiteboard Capital, Nath Ventures and Blume Founders Fund. The team brings together expertise from leading global financial institutions like JP Morgan, UBS, BNP Paribas etc.