In a significant move within India's financial technology landscape, Bengaluru-based startup Wealthy has successfully secured ₹130 crore in a fresh funding round. This substantial investment, led by Bertelsmann India Investments, signals a strong contrarian bet on the enduring importance of human financial advisers, even as do-it-yourself (DIY) investing applications continue to capture media attention.
The funding round also saw participation from existing investor Alphawave Global, new investor Shepherd’s Hill, and several prominent technology entrepreneurs. The capital infusion is earmarked to deepen the company's artificial intelligence (AI) platform designed specifically for mutual fund distributors (MFDs).
The Contrarian Bet on Human Advisers
While platforms like Zerodha and Groww aggressively pursue a direct-to-consumer model, Wealthy is charting a different course. Instead of bypassing intermediaries, the company is empowering them. Its core strategy involves selling sophisticated software and AI tools to MFDs, who still facilitate approximately 80% of India's retail equity wealth.
Aditya Agarwal, Co-founder and CEO of Wealthy, emphasized this strategic choice. He revealed that close to 80% of mutual fund assets under management are still routed through human intermediaries. He further noted that a significant portion of the remaining 20%, which appears as 'direct' in industry data, is actually influenced by registered investment advisers.
"As India gets richer, people are shifting from being savers to investors, but as portfolios and life get more complex, time-poor households increasingly prefer expert guidance," Agarwal stated, explaining the market rationale.
Streamlining Operations with AI Technology
One of the most impactful applications of Wealthy's technology is in the realm of client onboarding and compliance. The platform leverages AI to drastically reduce the time required for Know-Your-Customer (KYC) checks.
"What used to take a week on paper, doing KYC, submitting it, waiting for it to be processed and then sending an investment link, can now be done in a single meeting," Agarwal explained. The AI verifies the PAN, photo, and bank account in real-time, allowing distributors to complete KYC and collect the first investment cheque within the same 60-minute client conversation.
This efficiency is a major selling point for MFDs, who can now handle compliance, portfolio reviews, and product sales more efficiently while maintaining their role as the primary adviser to their clients.
Market Context and Growth Trajectory
The bet on adviser-led wealth-tech is backed by compelling macroeconomic trends. Annual financial savings of Indian households have climbed from about ₹24 lakh crore in FY20 to around ₹34.3 lakh crore presently, according to RBI data estimates. In a parallel surge, yearly flows into mutual funds have jumped from approximately ₹70,000–80,000 crore to nearly ₹4 lakh crore, marking a near sevenfold increase.
Wealthy operates on a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) model. It currently works with just over 5,000 active distributors and manages around ₹5,000 crore in assets under management (AUM). The company generates revenue through trails or commissions from mutual fund houses and insurance companies for every sale, which is then shared with its network of distributors.
Financially, Wealthy's revenue from operations grew to approximately ₹25 crore in FY25, up from ₹14.5 crore in FY24. However, total expenditure also increased by 41% year-on-year to ₹70 crore, leading to a net loss of ₹35 crore in FY25. The company's valuation in this latest round remains undisclosed, but Agarwal confirmed it is at least double the ₹400 crore valuation from its Series A round.
Ambitious Future Goals and Competitive Landscape
Wealthy has set ambitious internal targets, aiming to onboard 50,000 mutual fund distributors and scale its AUM to ₹1 lakh crore by the end of the decade. This represents an eightfold increase from its current distributor base and a twentyfold jump from its present AUM.
Rohit Sood, Partner at Bertelsmann India Investments, provided a bullish outlook on the sector. He pointed out that less than 15% of Indian households currently have any exposure to equity markets, a figure he believes will move closer to 60% over time, aligning with developed markets.
While Wealthy will compete for market share with DIY giants like Groww and Zerodha, Sood argues they are playing different games. He believes that while DIY investing is crucial, advisory-led models typically capture a larger market share as a country's wealth deepens and portfolios become more complex—a pattern observed in the US, China, Singapore, and Australia.
The new capital will be deployed to deepen Wealthy's technology stack, expand its reach into tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and aggressively grow its distributor network, cementing its position in India's rapidly evolving wealth-tech ecosystem.
