Vise, the all-in-one AI-powered investment management platform for independent advisory practices to build and manage portfolios, today announced the close of its $45 million Series B funding round, bringing the total capital raised since Vise’s founding to over $60 million. Sequoia Capital led the Series B with participation from Allen & Company, Founders Fund, and Greenoaks Capital and from Michael Ovitz and Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, who will be joining as advisors. Vise will use the funding to continue to build out and enhance its product and functionalities and to expand its team of world-class talent.
Sequoia’s Ravi Gupta is joining Vise’s board, making him the second board member from Sequoia alongside Shaun Maguire.
Founded by Samir Vasavada and Runik Mehrotra, and officially launched in November 2019, Vise is built on the belief that humans — armed with the right technology — are more adept at handling the financial affairs of their clients than an app. Vise supports the entire lifecycle of the advisor-client relationship through AI-powered automation. This includes determining different investment options and creating customized portfolios tailored to individual clients’ needs, values and goals, that maximize financial opportunities while protecting against market turbulence — all within a clean interface. The platform also guides investment advisors through talking points on the justifications behind each portfolio decision.
Vise has experienced significant momentum since the announcement of its Series A in May 2020, quadrupling its customer base and signing notable firms as clients, most recently Aurelien Capital Partners, Barber Financial Group, and Hexagon Capital Partners.
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“At Vise, we are empowering financial advisors with technology and tools they have never had before, not only to be more effective, but also much more efficient resources for their clients,” said Samir Vasavada, co-founder and CEO of Vise. “Our investors have all seen the promise of Vise and believe in our vision and the team and we are so honored to be able to have both Ravi and Shaun on our board.”
“Vise is revolutionizing the wealth management industry by enabling financial advisors with sophisticated technology,” said Ravi Gupta, partner at Sequoia. “Samir and Runik are visionary founders who continue to demonstrate an unparalleled understanding of the financial services space and an exceptional ability to solve for the modern advisor’s needs. We’re thrilled to triple down on our partnership with Vise as the team redefines one of the world’s largest markets.”
Vise’s team has grown rapidly over the past nine months, from six to 50 employees with plans to reach 100 employees in the first half of 2021. In September, the company announced several key appointments including Shah Hafizi, the former Chief Compliance Officer of the Digital Wealth division of BlackRock, as Chief Compliance Officer, and Niki Sri-Kumar, the former Director of Product at Affirm, as Vice President of Product, and Yoonie Kim, the former Head of Talent at Codecademy and Recruiting Leader at Dropbox, as Vice President of People & Talent. The company also announced that two former SEC Commissioners, Troy Paredes and Joe Grundfest, joined its Advisory Board.
“We are honored to have attracted such incredible talent,” said Runik Mehrotra, co-founder and CIO of Vise. “We look forward to using this funding to accelerate our work at Vise as we move towards becoming the central nervous system of the wealth management industry.”
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