Financial planning start-up Cube Wealth has raised ₹14 crore (about $2 million) in a Series A round, the company’s founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Satyen Kothari said. The investors that participated include Singapore-based venture fund Beenext, Japan-based Asuka Holding and 500 Startups, a US-based early stage venture fund, Kothari said over the phone. Cube Wealth helps manage investment portfolios and provides investment advice from registered advisers.
The funds will be used to grow sales in its top cities—Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune—and expand to Europe and Japan, targeting non-resident Indians. Kothari said Cube Wealth hopes to becomes profitable by the time it goes for a Series B fundraise, roughly 18 months from now.
Cube Wealth helps users plan their finances, with a target to save more. It works on a subscription model, where a user pays an investment adviser, from whom Cube collects a commission. It has Securities and Exchange Board of India and Reserve Bank of India registered advisers who usually advise high net worth individuals, and provides international investment options in mutual funds as well.
“We are targeting the upper middle class segment of users who have an income of ₹10 lakh per annum and above and want to make financial planning easy and jargon-free,” said Kothari.
The start-up currently employs 15 people, mostly engineers, and will look to hire more in the next year, although it targets at keeping the employee count below 50.
Serial entrepreneur Kothari is also the co-founder of payment gateway Citrus Pay, which was acquired by PayU in 2016 for $130 million. He has previously founded marketing automation firm Trapezo and e-commerce firm Lotus White, among others.
Source: Mint