WealthRyse, an Asian artificial intelligence (AI)-driven wealth management platform operator, plans to tap into the expertise and knowledge of financial institutions in a new fundraising round scheduled for late 2025, according to co-founders David Lee, Bernard Lee, and Anthony Choi.

The AI startup, which helps wealth advisors and asset managers to digitally enhance their portfolio management services, is looking for long-term investors interested in the application of neural network AI in the financial technology sector, they told Mergermarket in a joint interview. The insights and experiences of these investors – particularly around the successes and challenges faced by other startups – will serve as an important guide and be critical in shaping WealthRyse’s strategic plans, they added.

The firm is seeking up to USD 10m in the potential Series A fundraising, and is open to speaking with financial advisors with investor referrals, said the co-founders.

WealthRyse completed an approximately USD 1m seed round in late 2024, getting support from financial institutions like MuckerLab, an accelerator program run by Los Angeles-headquartered venture capital (VC) firm Mucker Capital. According to David, this fundraising reflected investors’ “strong confidence” in WealthRyse’s solutions to challenges around applying AI to investment portfolios.

Ambitious revenue targets

WealthRyse is in the process of onboarding its first three institutional clients. Its largest client has already helped double its new client acquisitions and report a 38% rise in user satisfaction, driven by its AI-powered predictive insights, said the co-founders.

The founding team declined to comment on financial figures but noted that WealthRyse is targeting 10x revenue growth year-on-year and aiming to enhance client retention by 22% year-on-year.

David added that the firm’s focus on ESG has also attracted new revenue sources, including a 33% jump in interest among clients for sustainable investments.

“Although we appreciate the rising expectation that we may be the next possible unicorn, given the attention around DeepSeek and the rapid development of AI as a whole, our focus continues to be on our growth trajectory, service fit, and our sales strategy to build and scale client relationships,” said David.

WealthRyse was established in April 2024 by the co-founders, who are graduates from Harvard University, Princeton University, Stanford University and New York University. They are the majority shareholders of the firm, having set up WealthRyse to commercialize neural network technology and apply it in the wealth technology space.

“Our commitment to embrace the ‘do-it-for-me’ or agentic AI to enhance conversion rates in financial investment advice and introductions has resulted in increased adoption by, and engagement for, financial advisors by over 50%. This has directly led to significant improvements in client engagement and revenue growth for advisors and wealth managers,” said Choi.

By acting as an asset management “co-pilot,” WealthRyse leverages proprietary data lake technology and predictive analytics to generate superior investment outcomes – with the AI platform often outperforming the average human portfolio manager by two or three times, explained Bernard, a former Managing Director at BlackRock’s portfolio management group in New York.

The fact that the firm’s proprietary AI technology has been validated by scientific platforms like Springer-Nature and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) also helps, he added.

Market potential 

The neural network technology commercialized by WealthRyse is derived from Bernard’s intellectual property. It was further developed with funding from the National Research Foundation in Singapore and other subsequent grants, said the co-founders.

WealthRyse competes with US-based turnkey asset management providers such as Envestnet, InvestCloud and Addepar, many of which focus on AI capabilities primarily in the middle and back-office functions.

The Asia Pacific wealthtech industry recorded assets under management (AuM) of USD 600bn to USD 700bn at the end of 2022. The AuM could potentially triple or quadruple by 2027, according to McKinsey & Company’s research report published in October 2023.

To contextualize the wealthtech market, direct-to-consumer wealthtech firms, with AuM of USD 150bn to USD 200bn in 2022, are poised to boost AuM to USD 650bn to USD 750bn by 2027, while business-to-business wealthtech firms, with a market size of USD 450bn-USD 500bn, are expected to hit USD 1.4tn to USD 1.5tn in the same timeframe, said the report.