Wealth India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd., (WIFS), the promoter of leading online investment services platform FundsIndia.com, announced it has raised Rs. 3 crores in Series A investment from Inventus Capital Partners. The investment will be used for expanding the customer base and enhancing the online platform with new products and services.
FundsIndia.com was launched in June 2009 with its mutual fund services. It was the first platform to offer online access to no-entry-load, no-transaction-fee approach to a wide set of mutual funds in India. Subsequently, it enhanced the platform to offer corporate fixed deposit products and an equity investment platform. They also offer tax-filing facility and an online-enabled NPS platform. Under the guidance of some foreign insurance experts like Arthur J. Gallagher, the company also plans to launch an insurance platform shortly.
WIFS was started by two entrepreneurs – C R Chandrasekar and Srikanth Meenakshi – in October, 2008. Between the two, they have more than two decades of experience in technology enabled retail financial services, especially through the online medium.
“Indian financial services industry is going through a very dynamic phase currently. Recent regulatory changes across the spectrum of the industry have led to a comprehensive re-think of the distribution and delivery models for products and services. Our technology-enabled online platform enables us to offer high-quality services at a low-cost in a scalable manner. We believe this is the model of the future for this industry”, said Chandrasekar.
“Inventus was among the earliest of the venture capital firms that we reached out to. They have a strong and successful track record of funding and mentoring early-stage companies. We are looking forward to leveraging their experience as we take our company to the next level”, he continued.
Srikanth added, “This investment enables us to do two things that excites us. First, it enables us to enhance our offering both in terms of additional products as well as creating more innovative value-added services across the platform. Second, it lets us introduce FundsIndia to a large audience of people and get them going on the path of investing for their financial future”.
vSpeaking for Inventus Capital Partners Managing Director Kanwal Rekhi said, “The financial services segment in India provides a large and growing opportunity for a cost-effective solution like FundsIndia.com. The online-only model enables FundsIndia.com to be nimble in a rapidly altering regulatory scenario. In Chandra and Srikanth we see an experienced, driven entrepreneurial duo well poised to address the emerging opportunities. We look forward to working closely with them to create a significant online brand to enable transactions in financial products”.
Renowned entrepreneur/investor Kanwal Rekhi and Parag Dhol will join the founders on the board of the company.
About FundsIndia: FundsIndia.com is an online value-added financial services platform created and promoted by Wealth India Financial Services Pvt Ltd., a Chennai based company. The company was established in October 2008, and the platform was launched in June 2009. They offer mutual funds from 30 AMCs, stocks and ETFs from NSE, fixed deposit products from 6 corporates, and online-enabled NPS services. They are tied up with 19 banks for online transaction facilities. They have customers from all over the country and abroad for their innovative value-added financial services offerings.
About Inventus Capital Partners: Inventus supports ambitious entrepreneurs building the next generation of technology powered companies, particularly software products, services, embedded software, consumer internet, semiconductor and mobile services companies. The Inventus principals have successfully invested in over 90 companies through multiple venture cycles since 1993. They play active mentoring roles on company boards. Inventus’ recent investments in the US-India corridor include TeliBrahma, Insta Health Solutions and redBus. For more information on Inventus Capital Partners, please visit: http://localhost:91/news
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