Otto Money, an AI-driven wealth technology company, has successfully raised a pre-seed round of funding amounting to $1.3 million (approximately ₹11 crore) in India. It was a major boost to the nascent wealth management ecosystem in the country. Pravega Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, led the investment. It is a definite indication of the investor confidence in the intersection of artificial intelligence and retail financial advisory.
Vision and investor participation
The funding round experienced a wide range of institutional and individual support. In addition to the lead investment of Pravega Ventures, the round included several large angel investors, such as Rishi Kohli (Jio BlackRock AMC), Amit Gupta, Amit Agarwal, and Mohit Aron. The round was also supported by the existing backers in the company, which meant that they still believed in the vision of the startup and its ability to change the traditional wealth advisory model.
Otto Money was founded in 2025 by Apurv Gupta and Ankur Lahoti to solve the painful issues encountered by digitally active retail investors. Information asymmetry, fragmented portfolio views, and reactive investment decisions are the main problems that the startup points to as the obstacles to effective wealth creation in India.
The platform is unique in its approach of multi-asset portfolio advice without the sale of financial products. This advisory-only model is developed to advise on financial choices through the use of data and abandon commission-based sales in favor of AI-informed, unbiased advice.
Capital infusion and competitive field
Otto Money has defined a definite roadmap on how the $1.3 million capital infusion should be deployed in 12-18 months. The major areas of focus are on improving the core AI models and increasing the personalization capabilities that will provide hyper-customized investment journeys.
Extending its objective-based advisory model to assist clients in multifaceted multi-asset contexts. Establishing strong engineering and data science teams to sustain a competitive advantage in AI development. Developing strategic go-to-market activities in Tier-I cities in India to create a robust early-adopter user base.
The investment is amidst an increased activity within the Indian wealthtech industry. Indian wealthtech startups generated over 51 deals and over $634 million of fund in 2024 and 2025, respectively, as per the data collected by Entrackr. This momentum has been carried over to 2026, with other players such as AssetPlus, which raised $19.3 million, and Wint Wealth, which raised $28 million in its Series B round, closing massive rounds.
Otto Money is in the early deployment phase in this competitive field. The startup is focused on the digitally active investor segment by targeting to gain a portion of the market of advanced, algorithm-driven financial planning platforms that were previously available to high-net-worth individuals only.
Conclusion
The successful pre-seed round of Otto Money highlights a critical change in the way Indian retail investors are likely to engage with their wealth over the next few years. The startup also anchors its bet on the idea that investors will give an ever-growing preference to independent, data-driven guidance over conventional product-driving mechanisms, by focusing on an AI-first, non-distribution model.
Otto Money has the potential to grow its operations and close the advisory divide in Tier-I cities of India with the support of Pravega Ventures and a team of experienced industry angels.
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