The firm will use the investment to scale up distribution, product, and tech teams that will focus on growing assets under management from high net-worth individuals, family offices, and institutional investors

Tech-based investment management firm, Upside AI, has raised a seed round of $1.2 million led by venture capital fund Endiya Partners. Other investors in the round included Vijay Kedia, veteran stock market investor; Ajay Nanavati, chairman of Quantum Advisors and previously chairman of Syndicate Bank & MD of 3M; and Gopichand Katragadda, CEO of Myelin Foundry and ex-CTO of Tata Group.

The firm will use the investment to scale up distribution, product, and tech teams that will focus on growing assets under management (AUM) from high net-worth individuals (HNIs), family offices, and institutional investors.

Mumbai-based Upside AI is a Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)-registered portfolio management service (PMS) and uses a combination of fundamental investing and machine learning to invest in companies in the Indian stock market.

The startup was founded in December 2017 by Kanika Agarrwal, Nikhil Hooda, and Atanuu Agarrwal.

According to the PMS, it has delivered 71% cumulative returns since July 2019 and the AUM has grown by 10 times over the last year to over ₹55 crore with funds from several HNIs and family offices.

Atanuu Agarrwal, said, “Technology and rules-based investing already dominates mature markets. In fact, the top 5 hedge funds in the world are quant funds. Around five-10 years from now this will play out in India too and we are excited to be at the forefront of this movement. Over the next couple of years, we want to add 1,000 HNIs, family offices, and institutional clients and grow to ₹1,000 crore AUM.”

Upside AI is building products that follow a rules-based, systematic approach to investing. The start-up’s first few products focus on equity investing using proprietary machine learning algorithms to understand, recognize, and buy companies that are fundamentally good businesses.

Endiya Partners is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in IP-led Indian product start-ups that are globally relevant. Founded in 2015, the venture capital fund has $100M under management.