Two years after selling Ibibo to MakeMyTrip for an estimated $2 billion and making an exit from its first venture, Ibibo founder, Ashish Kashyap, has launched his second entrepreneurial venture called INDWealth, which is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered wealth management company.

Kashyap has co-founded INDwealth with three other co-founders namely Pratiksha D., Amrita Sirohia and Varun Bhatia. Pratiksha and Varun are former employees at Ibibo and were serving as Software Engineers at Kashyab founded Ibibo. Amrita Sirohia on other hand is former Vice President at HSBC.

The parent company of IndWealth is Finzoom Investments, which is registered in Gurgaon.

INDWealth, an AI and machine learning-based wealth management and advisory platform, will offer a slew of services to high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals. Its a full stack personal finance platform that aims to provide solutions to investors ranging from wealth management, investments, micro-savings, taxation, lending, expense management, and portfolio management.

Moreover, the startup has raised an estimated $30 million (~ Rs 220 crore) in seed funding from UK and Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital, which is possibly the largest funding round raised by a homegrown startup that is yet to be launched for public.

Ravi Mehta, managing director at Steadview Capital, said in a statement to Economic Times, “Globally, this space has seen some innovative applications of tech, especially artificial intelligence and machine learning, combined with human touch to change the way wealth is managed for individuals.”

With this fundraise, INDwealth has joined the league of very few Indian startups which has raised a handsome capital even before being launched and going live for public usage. Earlier in September last year, Mumbai-based InsurTech startup Acko General Insurance had raised $30 million in seed funding from many high profile investors.

INDwealth is expected to launch in January next year, for both Android and iOS users. The app will initially target HNIs and affluents with annual incomes starting from Rs 18-Rs 20 lakh and upwards and therafter it will eventually be rolled out for all.

In a statement given to Economic Times, Kashyap said, “The key learning is, managing money cannot be done through a single dimension. It can’t just be done through investments. It has to be done through a combination of investment, liabilities and taxation. We want to play a very important part of the consumer’s financial life."

“Everyone is developing products and solutions of various sub-categories, but they all intersect. We wanted to bring all of this under one roof, which is classic wealth management practice. This will enable consumers to plan their goals for the future,” he said.

Kashyap quit as president and co-founder of MakeMyTrip in September last year, a year after he, along with MakeMyTrip group chief executive Deep Kalra, had orchestrated, at the time, the largest internet merger in India—the $2 billion largely stock acquisition of Ibibo Group by the Nasdaq-listed Makemytrip.

Prior to founding "ibibo Group", Kshyap was had served as Country Head of Google India, where he set up the India facing operations from ground up. Prior to Google, he was also the head of E-Commerce businesses at Indiatimes.com (Online travel, Shopping and Payments).

Post his stint at Google, he set up Ibibo Group, which was initially created as a greenfield incubator, in partnership with Naspers, before evolving into an online travel business.

Ashish holds an Economics (Honors) from Kirori Mal College, University Of Delhi and a diploma in "International Masters in Practicing Management (IMPM) from Insead, Fontainebleau, France.

Kashyap had also made a couple of investments in Indian startups - Betaout and Food delivery startup BiteClub.

Source - Economic Times
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