India’s first, largest and pioneering integrated incubator and accelerator platform, recently invested in Vested, an investment platform dedicated to empower Indian investors with access to the US stock market. The investment was part of Vested’s preseed round. The Vested platform has been conceptualized with sustainable wealth creation being the ultimate objective. Adding to Venture Catalysts’ high potential and burgeoning Fintech portfolio, Vested helps the rapidly growing investor community in India to diversify their portfolios globally via the US markets.
The Indian investor community is thriving. Currently, there are approximately 32 million retail investors and more than 60 million Mutual fund investors in India. In fact, the overall number of investors is growing at 15% annually. Vested has offices both in USA and in India. Further, India is the first market that Vested has launched in. The Vested product is an easy-to-use online platform with zero commission charges. They also offer education on the US market and the ability to buy fractional shares. Vested also helps its users with the remittance process and with tax tracking.
Vested was founded by Viram Shah, Darwin Arifin and Eric Huynh. While Viram and Darwin are avid investors themselves, Eric comes with massive experience in product creation. Viram was previously an investment banker with J.P. Morgan while Darwin acquired deep knowledge in new-age technological solutions at Intel. Eric was Director of Product at Azumio and has built over 30 products over the years, some of them being featured by Apple and Google.
Commenting on Vested’s founding story, Viram Shah, CEO and Co-Founder, said, “We met in the Bay Area while studying at UC Berkeley and instantly connected over our shared interest in entrepreneurship. All of us come from diverse backgrounds and countries but we all have first-hand experienced the pain of diversifying our portfolios internationally. Thus, Vested emerged as a solution that is a new-age global investment facilitation platform that enables investors to access diverse markets in an easy and affordable manner. We are excited to be supported by Venture Catalysts in this endeavor. Their investor network is large and diverse. We are looking forward to tapping into this network and the treasure trove of expertise that comes with it.”
Darwin added, “Getting an investment from VCats has been invaluable for our growth. The resources and connections that they bring to the table have been helpful to launch our product.” For Eric, the mentorship aspect of VCats’ huge investor network played a key role in helping understand the intricacies of India’s investment landscape. He adds, “We are excited about what VCats brings to the table for us. The connections and mentorship we have received has already been vital and we look forward to our partnership together.”
Anuj Golecha, Co-Founder Venture Catalysts said, “Vested is a one-of-its-kind platform that fills a long felt need gap of bridging investors from all over the world to local and international markets. The founders are highly experienced business professionals and have extensive domain knowledge in fintech, AI and analytics space. We believe that supporting Vested in its current phase will help them to build their product and team for rapid expansion across multiple markets.”
