Why has the start up, Vested Finance, raised seed funding from investors?

In the last few years, the online investment platforms and Fintechs have been quote aggressive raising money in the markets and there has been no shortage of willing investors too. In the latest round of funding, online investment platform called Vested Finance had announced that it has raised $3.6 million as part of its seed funding round. Seed funding is a form of early stage funding for long term good ideas.

The funding round for Vested Finance saw participation from US-based funds like Moving Capital, Ovo Fund and TenOneTen Ventures. In India, India based venture funds like Inflection Point Ventures and Venture Catalysts have also participated in the current round of funding for Vested Finance. This start-up is just 2 years old and is based out of California, with offices in Mumbai. This platform allows Indian investors to invest in the US markets.

Indian participation in global companies in their capacity as shareholders is very limited although Indians have been contributing immensely to the top and bottom line of international companies for decades either as employees or as partners or as vendors and suppliers. However, investment restrictions had put a cap on Indian participation in such ventures. Now they have a chance to create wealth too by investing in them.

Vested Finance has the simplest US investing platform for Indian investors and the company has been growing frenetically in the recent past as an increasing number of persons are seriously looking at the opportunity. In the year 2020 alone, Vested Finance processed trades in the US markets worth more than $100 million. Nearly, half of its investors investing in the US market are first time investors from India, showing the attractiveness of the proposition.

In the current model, investors can choose individual stocks or ETFs or they can even select from a curated portfolio called Vests. These curated portfolios are partly customized based on various goals, themes and risk levels. Vested Finance has partnered with over 25 brokers, Fintech companies and wealth management outfits including Axis Securities, Kuvera, Angel Broking and 5Paisa.

Its competition includes start-ups like Stockal, INDmoney and Groww which have all partnered with US-based stockbrokers to facilitate customers to invest in the US market sitting here in India. But the big competition could come when Zerodha enters the fray in a big way.