Z47-backed Dezerv raises fresh funds of $40 million from existing investors
Asset management platform Dezerv upgraded ₹The company’s top executive said it has raised Rs 350 crore (about $40 million) in a new round of funding from its existing investors. Mint.
The fully preliminary round is being led by Premji Invest and Accel’s Global Growth Fund, with participation from Elevation Capital and Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India). There was no secondary exit this round.
The fund comes at a time when venture capital interest in asset tech start-ups is growing, with platforms across asset classes gaining traction among India’s growing base of wealthy investors. Companies including Stable Money, Neo Wealth Management and Centricity raised significant amounts of VC money last year.
Dezerv co-founder Sandeep Jethwani said the company plans to use the new capital to improve customer experience, deepen its technology stack and expand investment offerings across asset classes.
technology upgrade
The company plans to heavily diversify into India’s account aggregator (AA) ecosystem to better customize solutions to deepen its technology stack, expand its ‘One Model’ platform to include new asset classes and provide a stronger user experience (UX).
Jethwani said the company is focused on deepening asset classes such as infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs) and the precious metals category such as gold and silver in its multi-asset solutions.
Dezerv plans to recruit 200 more relationship managers within the next 12 months from the new funds. There are currently about 170 of them.
The company said these initiatives will accelerate its transition to a fully equipped wealth manager to meet the financial needs of all families.
The platform serves customers in over 200 cities through offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. Now the company is primarily targeting the large, underserved affluent category in tier-2 India, focusing on going “much deeper across existing 200 cities.”
The co-founder said the focus is on cities like Baroda, Nagpur, Mysore, Coimbatore, Lucknow, Kanpur and Jaipur, where wealth creation is driven by “SMEs and independent professionals like doctors”. Dezerv currently serves these markets digitally from its offices in tier 1 cities, but said it is open to adding two or more cities.
Founded in 2021 by Jethwani, Sahil Contractor and Vaibhav Porwal, Dezerv’s revenue in FY24 was as follows: ₹It reported a net loss of 26.3 cr ($3.18 million) ₹74.5 cr in the same financial year. The company is yet to release its FY25 financial reports.
Jethwani said his firm is focused on growth-oriented investments “because the government is doing so much heavy lifting through digital public infrastructure, it’s our duty to complement that technology spending.”
The startup’s last funding round in July 2024 was a $32 million Series B led by Premji Invest at a valuation of around $207 million, which brought its total capital to $100 million (more ₹850 crore).
The company did not disclose the valuation in the new round, but the co-founder noted that there was an increase.
Last week, Mint Z47, which backs companies like Dezerv and Stable Money, has reportedly increased its interest in the wealthtech segment and fintechs with a strong AI play. The company is now deploying capital from its fourth fund, which closes at $550 million in 2023, and reserves will be double that of existing portfolio companies, managing director Vikram Vaidyanathan said last week.
