Investment management startup Upside AI has raised $1.2 Million in a seed round funding led by VC fund Endiya Partners. The funds raised will be used to hire senior sales talent with experience in the space and hire best-in-class product engineers.
Other investors in the round include Vijay Kedia – veteran stock market investor, Ajay Nanavati – Chairman of Quantum Advisors, previously Chairman of Syndicate Bank, MD of 3M, and Gopichand Katragadda – CEO of Myelin Foundry, ex-CTO of Tata Group.
Mumbai-based Upside AI was founded in Dec 2017 by Kanika Agarrwal, Nikhil Hooda, and Atanuu Agarrwal – registered with SEBI as a Portfolio Management Service (PMS).
Commenting on the fundraise, Atanuu Agarrwal, co-founder, Upside AI, said, “We believe the Indian asset management industry is in its early days with single-digit penetration of household wealth. Technology and rules-based investing already dominate mature markets; in fact, the top 5 hedge funds in the world are quant funds. 5-10 years from now, this will play out in India too, and we are excited to be at the forefront of this movement. Over the next couple of years, we want to add 1,000 HNIs, family offices, and institutional clients and grow to INR 1,000 cr AUM. We believe the funding and guidance from Endiya and our esteemed angel investors will propel us towards this milestone.”
Lead investor Sateesh Andra, managing director, Endiya said, “Upside AI has already attracted marquee clients ranging from large family offices, VCs, CEOs of large MNCs in India and the US on the back of unique investment tech that the team has built in-house and extensively tested. The funding will help them build a robust pipeline of differentiated tech products and a network of large distributors, wealth managers, brokers, and IFAs. The Founders’ product-focused and client-centric approach can help them achieve their vision of being a world-class, tech-driven asset management company which will democratize access to sophisticated investment technology built for Indian investors.”
Upside AI’s first few products focus on equity investing using proprietary machine learning algorithms to understand, recognize, and buy companies that are fundamentally good businesses.
