AI-driven investment advisor Wright Research has raised $1 million as seed capital from Orios Venture Partners. The company plans on using these funds for business expansion, bolstering the technology stack, and accelerating its foray into institutional fund management.

Sonam Srivastava, founder of Wright Research, believes that the Indian market has myriad opportunities which come and go dynamically. This opens up opportunities for well-researched and risk-managed quantitative investment strategies. 

"We have seen the power of the rising retail investor in India who increasingly trusts technology. We are committed to providing our investors with an enhanced investment experience powered by quantitative research and a dedicated and transparent approach. We happen to make great strategies that have flourished in the last few years, which helps us in our mission," she said. 

Rajeev Suri, managing partner at Orios Venture Partners, added, "We are excited to partner with Sonam on her journey to provide a quant-based hedge fund approach to retail investors. This represents an extremely sophisticated investment strategy thus far available only to high-ticket-size investors. We are happy to support her in democratising this strategy, which has become a powerful trend in finance due to distribution via digital ecosystems."  

IIT Kanpur graduate Srivastava founded Wright Research as a Robo-advisory firm in 2019. She has a decade-long experience in quantitative investment and algorithmic trading in institutional investment firms like HSBC, Edelweiss and Qplum. She founded Wright Research to empower the broader Indian audience with the benefits of well-designed quantitative and AI-driven investment algorithms. The wealth tech company claims to have over 40,000-lifetime subscribers and close to 200 crores in assets under advisory.

Wright Research has previously raised a pre-seed round with BSE Institute Startup Incubator BRTSIF via the Government of India Nidhi Seed Support System. It also added investors like erstwhile McKinsey strategic consultant Varun Jalan and Karan Maheshwari of Maheshwari Investments as advisors for the institutional product. 

The Mumbai-based investment advisory firm uses Deep-Tech, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) investment modules based on quant research. Recently, it launched its app that offers end-to-end client experience, from onboarding to execution. It currently partners with companies like Zerodha, IIFL Securities, AngelOne, Edelweiss, Upstox, Dhan, Department of Science & Technology and Innovation Partners Capital. 

With the new funds, the digital-first wealth-tech start-up will bolster its execution technology and client experience, and push for building a wider community of subscribers. It will also start its foray into portfolio management services and alternative investing with the appropriate Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) licenses.

Robo-investing is a field of investing where the whole process, from client interaction to research and execution, is done using the power of technology and data. Its adoption is linked to the fintech industry's growth because people will start making investments over the phone once they are assured it can be used for making payments securely. 

This pattern has been seen globally, where platforms like Wealthfront and Betterment have flourished in the US as fintech got more assertive. Similarly, start-ups in China like BangNiTou have increased to take over the traditional markets as fintech expands.