Upside AI raises seed round of $1.2 Mn led by Endiya Partners

Upside AI, a SEBI registered investment management start-up, has raised a seed round of $1.2 Million, led by VC fund, Endiya Partners. Other investors in the round include Vijay Kedia – veteran stock market investor, Ajay Nanavati – Chairman of Quantum Advisors, previously Chairman of Syndicate Bank, MD of 3M, and Gopichand Katragadda – CEO of Myelin Foundry, ex-CTO of Tata Group.

The company was founded on the belief that technology will make better investing decisions than humans over the long term. This is because machines are unbiased, unemotional, and unaffected by market euphoria and panic. It is therefore focused on building products that follow a rules-based, systematic approach to investing. Upside AI’s first few products focus on equity investing using proprietary machine learning algorithms to understand, recognize, and buy companies that are fundamentally good businesses. Founded in Dec 2017 by Kanika Agarrwal, Nikhil Hooda, and Atanuu Agarrwal, Upside AI spent a year in beta and went live with its products to external investors in Jul-19. It is registered with SEBI as a Portfolio Management Service (PMS).

Today, Upside AI ranks among the top-performing PMS’ in the country delivering 71% cumulative returns since Jul 2019. In Jun 2021, PMS AIF World ranked Upside AI Multicap in the top 10 products of its peer group. On the back of performance and organic referrals, their AUM has grown by 10x over the last year to over INR 55cr with funds from several HNIs, and family offices.

Upside AI aims to build India’s first end-to-end tech-led asset management company. It plans to use tech to run the entire chain from client onboarding to sophisticated investment tech to live tracking and reporting via a seamless UI/UX experience for clients. The funds raised will be used to hire senior sales talent with experience in the space, and hire best-in-class product engineers.

Commenting on the fundraise, Atanuu Agarrwal, Cofounder, Upside AI said, “We believe the Indian asset management industry is in its early days with single digit penetration of household wealth. Technology and rules-based investing already dominates mature markets; in fact, the top 5 hedge funds in the world are quant funds. 5-10 years from now this will play out in India too and we are excited to be at the forefront of this movement. Over the next couple of years, we want to add 1,000 HNIs, family offices, and institutional clients and grow to INR 1,000cr AUM. We believe the funding and guidance from Endiya and our esteemed angel investors will propel us towards this milestone.”

The lead investor in this round, Sateesh Andra, Managing Director, Endiya said: “Upside AI has already attracted marquee clients ranging from large family offices, VCs, CEOs of large MNCs in India and the US on the back of unique investment tech that the team has built in-house and extensively tested. The funding will help them build a robust pipeline of differentiated tech products and a network of large distributors, wealth managers, brokers, and IFAs. The Founders’ product-focused and client-centric approach can help them achieve their vision of being a world-class, tech-driven asset management company which will democratize access to sophisticated investment technology, built for Indian investors.”