Vise raises $14.5 million
Vise, an AI-driven investment management platform for financial advisors, has secured $14.5 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital with participation from previous investors Founders Fund, Bling Capital, Human Capital, Lachy Groom, Steve Chen, cofounder of YouTube and Jon Xu, cofounder of FutureAdvisor.
Founded in 2016 by Samir Vasavada and Runik Mehrotra, Vise automates investment management for financial advisors using AI. The startup has built a full-stack platform spanning the entire lifecycle of the advisor-client relationship, including designing personalized portfolios for clients, managing portfolios, and providing on-going intelligence.
Vise is available on the Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade Institutional platforms, representing over $800M in AUM amongst client commitments. Vise will use the funding to accelerate the growth of advisor partnerships and product development.
“Our platform uses AI to build customized portfolios for every client, which saves advisors time and enables them to focus on their superpowers: managing clients and growing their businesses. Human relationships run the advisory industry, so rather than seeking to replace advisors, Vise harnesses AI to make them even better at their jobs.” – Samir Vasavada, cofounder and CEO of Vise.
“The registered investment advisor (RIA) landscape is increasingly fragmented as advisors breakaway from large financial institutions to become independent, and we built Vise to support this new generation of advisor-entrepreneurs. In the same way Shopify enabled artisans to compete against Amazon, or how Airbnb allowed homeowners to launch their own businesses, Vise is giving independent advisers the tools they need to succeed.” – Runik Mehrotra, cofounder and Chief Investment Officer of Vise.
“Vise enters the RIA space at a critical time for the wealth management industry. Whereas actively managed mutual funds and robo-advisors are both struggling to provide competitive risk-adjusted returns and sufficient downside protection, Vise was designed to help advisors thrive amid volatility and uncertainty.” – Keith Rabois, partner at Founders Fund.
“Rarely have I met founders as talented as Samir and Runik, and never with tailwinds as compelling as with Vise.This is one of the biggest markets on Earth currently being revolutionized by the perfect storm of consumers pushing for more personalization, advisors seeking advanced technology so they can be even better at their jobs, and the industry moving towards zero-commission trades. This creates an opportunity to rethink decades of institutional wisdom and puts them in a prime position to be the central nervous system of the wealth management industry.” – Shaun Maguire, Vise Chairman and partner at Sequoia.
