Seeds Investor Raises $2.7M to Help Financial Advisors Deliver Responsible Investment Options to Clients – AlleyWatch

As younger generations look to build wealth and invest with financial advisors, there is a new appetite for responsible investing, where investors are keen to ensure their portfolios match their values. Once considered a nice-to-have sustainable finance consistent with a range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, it is becoming mainstream. seed A software platform built for financial advisors to help them understand their clients’ investment and value preferences and build portfolios based on these criteria. By conducting initial evaluations with clients, rather than simply dropping assets into pre-configured default buckets, as many advisors have traditionally done, advisors build multi-dimensional profiles. , allowing you to build a personalized portfolio. By adding this core capability to the Advisor’s repertoire, the Advisor will set himself apart in the race to secure a portion of his $30 trillion of professionally managed sustainable investment value. You can

alley watch Catch up with the CEO and Founder of Seeds Investor Zach Conway To learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, the latest funding round bringing the total raised to $3.2 million, and more…

Who are your investors and how much did you raise?

social leverage‘s leadership team includes Stocktwits co-founder Howard Lindzon., led the round. We also secured additional participation from Mixed Capital Fund ILP, affiliated venture capital funds of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and financial industry veterans Ryan ShanksCEO of FA Match, and Paul Walkerformer technology co-head of Goldman Sachs. ducontra venturesan impact fund co-founded by actor and investor Adrian Grenier and a venture capitalist Ba Minuzzi also joined. With this seed he raised $2.7 million in a round.

What inspired you to start Seeds Investor?

Prior to joining Seeds, he ran an advisory firm with his father, Michael Conway. Our catchphrase in that business is “Harmony of Life and Wealth”. Because we understand how important it is to have a truly personalized and experiential plan that goes beyond family and numbers. Ironically, we found the investment portion of their service to be completely devoid of personalization or any form of engaging experience. , put investors in a portfolio of unconventional models that they didn’t even really understand what they owned, and then had review meetings where all we really talked about was performance. We wanted a way to show people that we could meet our financial goals with our portfolio and feel reinvolved with money in the process. I didn’t have any software or tools to help me.

How is Seeds Investor different?

While there are some firms that offer elements of what we do, we claim to be in a unique category. Deliver a co-adopted experience.

What market and size does Seeds Investor target?
Seeds are designed for Registered Independent Advisors (RIAs). As of the end of 2020, there were approximately 36,000 of his RIAs in the US, overseeing over $3.86 trillion in retail assets. Assets managed by RIA are growing at a 5-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12%.

what is your business model?
Seeds uses a pricing model for SaaS subscriptions and traditional asset management.

How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
By staying thin. Our primary focus is to keep our heads down on our product roadmap and continue to support our customers’ growth goals, while hiring our expertise when it’s needed most.

What was the fundraising process like?
We focused on networking and reached out to angel investors and early stage ventures who clearly understand this space and can clearly support our efforts in a tangible way beyond capital.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in raising capital?
Fundraising is essentially a “catch 22”. Activating a business requires capital, but takes time and energy away from product and execution.

What factors in your business are driving investors to write you checks?
We come from the wealth management field, we understand the field deeply and this product clearly addresses the problem in an efficient and scalable way.

What milestones do you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We will introduce products to more than 12 of the largest platform aggregator RIA in Japan.

What advice can you give to a New York company that doesn’t have fresh knowledge? Injecting capital into banks?
Look for investors who know the areas you are building solutions for. Don’t waste time talking to companies just because they have an important name to put on the cap table.

Where do you see the company going now in the near future?
We will continue to focus on enhancing our products to keep meeting the needs of our customers.

What is your favorite restaurant in the city?
Gramercy Tavern. A lot of places come and go in New York. Like a startup, there are a lot of things that have to be done right to be a long-term restaurant in this city. Few that do, like the Gramercy Tavern, can become enduring and iconic.

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