Dezerv Investments, a wealth management startup, has raised $7 million from Elevation Capital and Matrix Partners India in its maiden institutional fundraising.

The company counts Whiteboard Capital, Blue Founder’s Fund and other marquee angels, industry executives and family offices among its investors.

“We will use this capital to build out our technology platform, expand the team and meet regulatory requirements,” said Sandeep Jethwani, cofounder of Dezerv Investments.

Founded in 2020 by former IIFL Wealth managers Jethwani, Sahil Contractor and Vaibhav Porwal, Dezerv Investments offers Indian working professionals a tech-driven financial platform, where they can seek expert advice on managing their money. “We are looking to offer deeply diligence bonds and high-quality pre-IPO opportunities for our customers,” Jethwani said.

It aims to solve for quality wealth management and portfolio management advisory in the country today. “We realised there is a dearth of high-quality advisors in India. For every million households, there are 400 advisors in India as against 5000 in the US. We are targeting this huge opportunity here,” Jethwani told.

Going forward, Dezerv will offer portfolio management advisory and look to branch out to other financial services. “We will add financing and risk advisory going forward,” he said.

According to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s June 2021 report on wealth management in India, India's high-networth investors--who are predominantly male and working professionals-- have a relatively high demand for wealth management services.

This shows that competition for wealth management business is fierce in the country.

To stand out from the crowd, providers should differentiate themselves through their products and services and grow their expertise in specific areas of the wealth management space. “Robo advisory services are witnessing a massive increase in demand, with 80% of wealth managers agreeing that traditional wealth managers will lose market share to these services in the next 12 months,” the report stated.