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HomeStart UpWealthtech startup Centricity bags $20M in a seed funding 

Wealthtech startup Centricity bags $20M in a seed funding 

Centricity, a wealthtech startup based in Gurugram, secured $20 million in seed funding. Lightspeed India Partners led the round, with additional support from returning investors like Burman Family Office and Shantanu Agarwal.

Centricity is now valued at $125 million, as shared by co-founder and CEO Manu Awasthy. 

The latest funding round also saw investments from Korean venture capital firm Paramark VC and a group of high-profile family offices and angel investors, including MS Dhoni Family Office, NB Ventures Family Office, Aakash Chaudhry (former CEO of Aakash Institute), Oyo’s Ritesh Agarwal, Nvidia’s Vishal Dhupar, MMG Group Family Office, and Action Tesa Family Office.

Centricity plans to use the new funds to scale its platforms, Invictus and One Digital. They will focus on enhancing technology, expanding their talent pool, growing private banking services, and pursuing strategic acquisitions.

“We wanted to go deep into India that is why we are catering to the segment of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNIs) that have around 70% of India’s wealth. We are also catering to the huge Indian market through a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) framework purely because no company in India has successfully built a distribution network. Our idea is to build India’s largest financial distribution company serving almost everyone possible,” Awasthy said.

Founded in 2022 by former private bankers Awasthy, Gaurav Tiwari, Manish Sharma, Pushpendra Singh, and Aditya Shankar, Centricity offers a plug-and-play financial services platform. It allows independent financial advisors, external asset managers, and single-family offices to manage investment portfolios and offers digital transactional capabilities across multiple products. It also helps financial product distributors manage client portfolios.

The One Digital platform gives intermediaries like mutual fund distributors and insurance agents access to financial products, training, and technology solutions, particularly in tier 2 cities and beyond. Invictus focuses on simplifying investment management for ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNI) and single-family offices with portfolios exceeding $12 million.

Currently, Centricity has over 4,500 financial distributors on its platform and manages Rs 4,500 crore in assets across 92 UHNI families. The company plans to expand its distribution network to 120 cities within 12 to 18 months, up from 27 cities today.

Centricity will also hire 40-50 private bankers to exclusively manage UHNI clients while doubling its tech team from 75 to over 150 specialists to drive innovations like generative AI-led modules, insurtech, and broking-tech platforms.

In February, Centricity reached operating profitability, according to Awasthy. The startup raised $4 million in September 2022, led by the Burman Family Office, at a $20 million valuation.

“Centricity’s vision of redefining wealth management with its one-of-a-kind solution is essential for India’s rapidly evolving financial landscape. The company’s commitment to empowering independent financial advisors and former private wealth professionals with a sophisticated, yet user-friendly platform sets a new benchmark in the industry,” said Shuvi Shrivastava, partner and advisor, Lightspeed India Partners.

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