Dezerv, a Mumbai based Portfolio Manager has secured $20.7 million to expand and strengthen its wealth management services. The startup’s mission is solve for quality wealth and portfolio management advisory, and build a very strong, scalable technology infrastructure that is secure, and which provides a high-quality experience for its subscribers.
Founded in 2021 by former IIFL Wealth senior managing partners Sandeep Jethwani, Vaibhav Porwal, and Sahil Contractor, Dezerv provides advisory and investment services—particularly targeting senior working professionals and high net-worth individuals (HNIs)—across multi-assets and instruments, including alternatives and new asset classes that are offered online.
The Series A funding round was led by Accel Partners. Existing investors Elevation Capital, Matrix Partners, Whiteboard Capital, and GTM Ventures also participated in the round.
Dezerv’s board has passed a special resolution to issue 20 equity shares and 46,289 Series A compulsory convertible preferred shares (CCPS) at an issue price of Rs 35,078.42 per share to raise Rs 162.44 crore ($20.7 million).
While Accel infused Rs 94.13 crore ($12 million), existing investors Elevation Capital and Matrix Partners added Rs 33.4 crore ($4.23 million) each. Whiteboard and GTM also joined the round with an infusion of Rs 97 lakh and Rs 58 lakh, respectively.
The startup had previously raised a seed round of $7 million, within six months of its launch in April last year. The new round takes the total fundraise to $27.7 million.
The minimum investment ticket size has been kept at Rs 50,000, while founders claim that the average investment through the platform falls within the range of Rs 5-7 lakh, and goes up to crores.
The platform claims to have over Rs 600 crore of transacted assets (as of June 2022) on its platform and is expected to touch Rs 1,000 crore in the next few months. It has recently bagged its Portfolio Management Service (PMS) licence and would add the offering to its current services. A portfolio manager is required to accept minimum of Rs 50 lakh or securities having a minimum worth of Rs 50 lakh from the client.
Dezerv’s competes with the investment arms of private sector banks, besides a host of other independent financial advisories in the country. Tech platforms like Groww, Zerodha, Upstox, Scripbox, and Kuvera are also operating in the space but follow a more Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approach without much human interface.
