PowerUp Money raises $10 million led by Flourish for AI wealth manager

PowerUp Money, a Bengaluru wealth-technology start-up, said on Tuesday, 3 November 2026, that it has raised $10 million, about Rs 95 crore, in a round led by Flourish Ventures, a venture fund that invests only in financial technology. Existing investors Peak XV Partners, Accel, Blume Ventures, Kae Capital, 8i Ventures and DeVC also put in money. Founder and chief executive Prateek Jindal said most of the funds will go into building an AI-powered wealth manager for Indian retail investors and into moving beyond mutual funds into shares, exchange-traded funds and other products.

PowerUp Money is betting that software, and now artificial intelligence, can give investment advice to large numbers of small investors at a cost a human adviser could not match. Its founder has said the aim is to turn users of its free research tools into paying subscribers of its advisory products.

The regulatory detail matters here. The company operates as a SEBI-registered investment adviser, and commentary on the business describes a subscription model that is independent of brokerage or commissions. That means its income depends on customers paying for advice, not on payments from fund houses, which shapes how it must grow: it has to persuade users that the advice is worth a fee.

The plan to add an AI-powered wealth manager raises a practical question that SEBI and investors will watch closely: how advice generated with the help of AI is checked, explained and kept within the adviser rules. The company has not said how its AI product will work in detail.

The choice of lead investor is also telling. Flourish Ventures invests only in financial technology, so its decision to lead the round is a bet on advice-led wealth platforms in India rather than on broking or payments, which have drawn most fintech money so far.

Peepals calculation: adding this $10 million to the $12 million Series A of December 2025 gives about $22 million in publicly reported funding, of which the new round is roughly 45% (10 ÷ 22 ≈ 0.45). The reported conversion of $10 million to about Rs 95 crore works out to an exchange rate of about Rs 95 per dollar (950,000,000 ÷ 10,000,000). Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: PowerUp Money gets money to build its AI wealth product and widen its range from mutual funds to stocks, ETFs, PMS and AIFs. Rival wealth platforms may face a better-funded competitor in the fee-based advice segment.

Long-term: If AI-assisted advice proves workable within SEBI's rules, more small investors may get personalised guidance at low cost, and the line between advice apps and full wealth managers may blur. If not, regulators may tighten how AI can be used in advice.

Who is affected: Retail investors, especially first-time mutual fund investors; SEBI-registered investment advisers and wealth platforms; fund houses that distribute through apps; and fintech investors.

Questions and Answers