Univest, a Gurugram-based wealthtech startup has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), the strategic investment arm of German giant Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA.
The funds raised will be used to accelerate its goal of democratizing access to top-notch research and offering a full-stack brokerage service.
The platform wants to be the most reliable, research-first stock market super app in India, addressing every issue faced by retail investors on a single platform, from making the best selections to knowing when to sell.
It had previously raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round from Trinity Media Group, Akash Anand (Bella Vita Organic) and Deep Bajaj (Sirona).
“The funds will enable us to scale our research-first, full-stack brokerage offering, creating India’s first true stock market superapp for retail investors. Our focus will remain on delivering seamless, personalised, and actionable insights that simplify the investment journey for our users. We look forward to leveraging this partnership to redefine the brokerage model and establish Univest as the go-to platform for retail investors in India,” said Pranit Arora, Co-Founder and CEO of Univest.
Pranit Arora, Co-Founder and CEO of Univest, said, “Over the past two years, Univest has been on a remarkable growth trajectory, helping millions of investors make confident, informed decisions. With this funding round, we are excited to accelerate our mission to democratise access to high-quality research. The funds will enable us to scale our research-first, full-stack brokerage offering, creating India’s first true stock market super app for retail investors.”
“Our focus will remain on delivering seamless, personalised, and actionable insights that simplify the investment journey for our users. We look forward to leveraging this partnership to redefine the brokerage model and establish Univest as the go-to platform for retail investors in India,” Arora added.
Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director, Bertelsmann India said, “Current investment solutions predominantly cater to ultra-high-net-worth and high-income segments, leaving over 85% of the market—the retail investors—without access to meaningful advisory services. These investors are left to navigate a fragmented and disjointed investment landscape. Univest’s advisory-led model is uniquely positioned to bridge this gap. As the retail investor base continues to grow, the demand for advisory services will soar and “platforms like Univest will play a pivotal role in enabling these investors to make the right calls and unlock their full wealth potential.”
Founded in 2022 by Pranit Arora, Avneet Dhamija, and Vikash Agarwal, Univest is a retail advisory platform. Through its SEBI-registered RA entity, Uniresearch, Univest provides general recommendations. It offers professional trading guidance for commodities, derivatives, and stocks.
The platform offers advisory services catering to short-term, medium-term, and long-term investment strategies. It also leverages artificial intelligence-driven tools to provide stock recommendations, portfolio management, and market insights.
The Gurugram-based company claims that it generates timely and trustworthy trading recommendations by fusing human expertise with cutting-edge algorithms and real-time stock screening. The company provides 3, 6, and 12-month subscription plans as well as 5-year plans that are flexible in terms of equity, futures, options, and commodities. During live market hours, investors receive entry and exit signals from SEBI-registered analysts, guaranteeing prompt and precise decision-making.
Univest was recently selected for the Google for Startups Accelerator Cohort 2024.
Since its inception, the platform has seen over 3 million sign-ups and over 150,000 paying subscribers, driven by an impressive success rate of 85 per cent on profitable calls, with 60 per cent of calls reaching their target prices.
