Wealth management startup Dezerv, which largely caters to an affluent section of first-generation wealth creators including founders and C-suite executives, will prioritise risk management next year as markets navigate global uncertainties. By late FY26, the company aims to scale its assets under management to Rs 25,000 crore from the current Rs 10,000 crore.
“There are broad macros that are positive but there are also enough uncertainties. I think we have to approach 2025 from a risk management point of view. What kind of assets will I offer will be a function of how I preserve wealth first and then decide to grow it,” said Sandeep Jethwani, one of the co-founders of Dezerv, in an interaction with Fe.
“From our perspective, we will continue to make sure that the portfolio has enough safety buffers built in,” he added. Jethwani, along with co-founders Sahil Contractor and Vaibhav Porwal, were former colleagues at IIFL’s wealth management arm and founded Dezerv in 2021 after raising a $7 million seed round from investors including Elevation Capital, Z47, and Blume Ventures.
Since then the company has raised another two rounds of funding, bringing the total funding raised to $60 million, and added investors such as Accel and Premji Invest to its cap table.
Not just Dezerv, 2024 saw investors firing up investments across wealth-tech companies amid a rise in HNI population. For example in September, Gurugram-based wealth-tech startup Centricity raised a $20 million seed round, and more recently, app-based stock investment platform Univest raised a $10 million Series A round earlier this week.
To be sure, the scope for growth of these wealth management platforms is plenty. According to an analysis shared by Dezerv of all mutual fund portfolios above Rs 40 lakh, 64% of investors have failed to beat benchmark indices and 4 out of 10 investments have led to underperformance.
With first-generation wealth creators becoming a meaningful segment among the client base of wealth managers, Dezerv plans to focus on deepening wallet share among existing clients and increasing referrals.