Aug 14, 2020

KEY HIGHLIGHTS Y-Combinator funded Piggy manages over $170 million mutual fund assets 'Ample' bets on filling the gap of easy transfer and management of investments for family members Having worked as investment bankers at Nomura previously, Nikhil Mantha and Ankush Singh were cognisant of the lack of access and knowledge of capital markets that was keeping many Indians at bay from potential wealth building opportunities. "We wanted to make an easy platform for retail investors to access the capital market, that is why we built an easy to use mutual funds platform. We were the first to bring all direct mutual funds in one place," says Mantha. Valuevest Services Private Limited founded in 2017 by Ankush Singh, Kunal Sangwan and Nikhil Mantha built 'Piggy' as an investment application that allowed direct fund investments into mutual funds, which now extends to all asset classes such as equity, debt, commodities, digital gold and even tracking of provident fund. "We manage infrastructure including payments ourselves and the money is routed to fund houses and units are allotted. The customers don't have to worry about payment methods; they don't have to remember folio numbers. We simplify that and manage at the backend," says Nikhil. The app offers users the convenience of tracking all their capital markets investments at one place and with a single window approach. Piggy facilitates both easy investment and withdrawal of money. Valuevest is a Registered Investments Advisor (RIA) and distributor of mutual funds under the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and a Y-Combinator backed start-up. Though initially work started out in Powai where other start-ups such as Housing.com ran their companies, Piggy moved lock stock and barrel to Bengaluru after spending six months at Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator's summer cohort. Unlike commissioned-based models from fund houses, Piggy's revenue comes from premium advisory services to its customers where a  flat annual fee is charged, which is not tied to the investment made, says Mantha. With over 1 lakh users, Piggy manages over $170 million in mutual fund assets and currently has a nimble team of 10 employees. The latest and second product offering 'Ample' app allows families to jointly manage and track  wealth on one platform and safely transfer portfolio details to a family member in case of  death or other unforeseen circumstances. Ample helps keep track of assets, investments, cryptocurrencies, debts, insurance and also a digital locker for documents. The company has also integrated with PLAID (acquired by VISA for $5.3 Billion in early January 2020) to securely auto-update balances and support all the major currencies and crypto assets. Sumit Shah, 34-year old entrepreneur and Ample user from Bangalore says the app makes him a little stress-free. "What worried me generally was that despite adding a nominee to all my investments, the chances of the companies reaching to my families in times of uncertainty is very low. With Ample I'm certain that my beneficiary will get the necessary information to take action when need be," he said. The company is also looking to bring out a third product in the personal finance space later this month.