Wealth management startup Dezerv on Tuesday said it has raised Rs 265 crore funding round led by Premji Invest with participation from existing investors Elevation Capital, Matrix Partners India (now Z47) and Accel. The company said it will invest fresh capital to craft new investment strategies, enhance its technology platform and hire investment specialists.
Founded by Sahil Contractor, Sandeep Jethwani, and Vaibhav Porwal, Dezerv said it manages over Rs 7,000 crore in client assets allocated across proprietary equities, fixed income, and alternative investment strategies.
“India’s wealth creators are set to add nearly $1.2 trillion over the next five years, with their wealth growing at a 14 per cent CAGR. At Dezerv, our mission is to support India’s affluent and HNIs in their wealth creation journey. Over 65 per cent of HNI portfolios often suffer from underperformance due to mis-selling and over-diversification,” said Sandeep Jethwani, Co-founder, Dezerv.
The startup caters to high net worth investor segment, which have investable wealth greater than Rs 1 crore, that has remained severely underserved by traditional wealth managers and retail banks.
Dezerv said this investor class is hampered by mis-selling and conflicts of interest as nearly two-thirds of over 2.5 lakh mutual fund portfolios, comprising over Rs 60,000 crore analysed by the company showed that they struggled to beat their benchmarks, resulting in missed gains of over Rs 2500 crore.
Speaking on the investment, Saravanan Nattanmai, Partner, Premji Invest said, “The financialisation of savings is gaining significant momentum in India. With the deepening of the capital markets, navigating the complex risk-return dynamics across multiple asset classes becomes increasingly challenging, especially for the mass affluent segment.”
Nattanmai said Dezerv has addressed this with “remarkable agility, offering centrally managed portfolios that leverage advanced analytics and technology, providing a personalised client experience sustainable even at scale.”
According to the Wealth Report 2023 by Knight Frank, the number of ultra-high networth individuals in India will grow by 58 per cent from 12,495 in 2022 to 19,908 in 2028.
Moreover, as per data platform Statista, India’s wealth management market is expected to reach $539.90 billion in AUM by 2024 and grow at a CAGR of 1.57 per cent to $574.70 billion by 2028. The market will likely be dominated by financial advisory services with a projected market volume of $391.80 billion in 2024.