The Wealth 2.0 Era

Over the last decade, India’s investing landscape has undergone a radical transformation – from offline brokers and fixed deposits to the ubiquity of UPI payments and zero-brokerage trading apps. Today, we stand at the gateway of a deeper evolution – one where tools give way to trusted, intelligent financial advisors.

We are now entering what we believe is the Wealth 2.0 era – a shift from Investment 1.0 (execution) to Investment 2.0 (advisory). In this new paradigm, success will no longer be defined by trading features or sleek interfaces, but by a platform’s ability to earn trust, deliver alpha, and guide users through the chaos of choice. We believe this shift opens up a multi-billion-dollar opportunity in tech-first, mass-affluent-focused investment advisory.

Over 100 million Indians – digitally native, newly salaried and aspirational – are trying to make sense of their financial futures. If the last decade was about educating the users that “MF Sahi Hain” (MF is right for you), the next will be about “ Kaunsa MF Sahi Hain?” (Which MF is right for you?). SIP contributions are at an all-time high, with over INR 26,000+ Cr flowing in monthly. The adoption of direct mutual fund plans among retail investors rose to 26% in February 2025, up from 12% in March 2019. And yet, most investors operate with limited insight, support or strategy. The new investor class is emerging not just from metro cities but from Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns – gig workers, professionals, first-time asset builders. They seek freedom – to educate their children, buy their first home, safeguard their parents’ health, or simply feel in control.

Despite the rise of DIY platforms like Groww and Zerodha, and the surge of financial influencer content, the average investor still operates in uncertainty. Am I investing right? Can I reach my goals? What should I do next?

What they need isn’t another place to transact.​
They need someone to guide them

We believe this is the inflection point where wealth-tech moves from being a transactional tool to becoming a trusted financial companion.

The Hidden Friction and the Gap PowerUp Closes

Here lies the paradox: despite INR 26,000 Cr+ being invested monthly via SIPs, access to genuine investment guidance remains frustratingly out of reach to most. Traditional wealth managers serve only the top 1%, charging 1-2% of AUM and requiring portfolios upwards of INR 1 Cr. New-age Wealth tech platforms focus on Portfolio Management Services (PMS) and cater to high-net-worth individuals (HNIs). Mutual Fund Distributor (MFD) platforms are inherently commission-driven and often skewed toward higher-yielding funds. Broker-led apps offer execution, not advice. YouTube is crowded with generic, conflicting opinions, leaving most investors to navigate the complexity with guesswork.

For the vast majority of new investors, the journey remains opaque. They’re left to rely on advice from friends, financial influencers, or relationship managers at their local bank branch. Everyone is investing, but most are still flying blind. Sometimes, a few wrong investments can erode wealth in the long run.

With this thesis in mind, we at Kae were actively looking to back a product-first founder who could democratize investment advisory for every Indian. Can a product empower every Indian to feel more confident in their investments without feeling overwhelmed?

That’s when we met Prateek Jindal, and this is the friction PowerUp Money is solving.

A New Kind of  WealthTech Platform

PowerUp Money is redefining investment advice for the mass-affluent Indian. It delivers personalized, bias-free, actionable guidance through a product-led model that puts the user first.

Here’s how PowerUp stands out:

• Power Age: A 2-minute tool to calculate your retirement age – intuitive, addictive, and deeply insightful. It’s reminiscent of CRED’s “Check your CIBIL” playbook but more actionable, and more attuned to Bharat’s financial curiosity.
• Power Portfolio: Analyse and optimize mutual fund allocations, even across multiple platforms. They categorise funds based on performance, labeling them as “on track” or “off track”, which gives customers immediate feedback on whether they should increase or reduce their SIPs.
• Power FD: Enables quick, digital investment in RBI-regulated fixed deposits offering up to 8.8% annual interest with flexible tenures and easy withdrawals.
• Elite Membership: An INR 999/year subscription offering curated portfolios, model allocations, and smart rebalancing – think Amazon Prime for investing.

This is just the beginning. With direct MF execution, FDs, PMS, and full-stack advisory on the roadmap, PowerUp is building India’s default wealth platform for the next 100M Indian users – a segment long ignored and deeply underserved.

Why We’re Backing PowerUp?

What got us truly excited about PowerUp isn’t just the market – it’s about the team’s unmatched depth in execution and obsessive consumer focus.

Prateek is a repeat founder, having seen fintech grow in India. He’s one of the rare founders who brings together deep product thinking, growth intuition, and brand-first execution – all honed at scale. He previously co-founded Uni Cards, where he led product, growth, design, and marketing, and before that, built Ola Postpaid from 0 to 1, creating a new category in digital credit.

More impressively, he brings this product-first mindset to wealth, a domain that has historically been sales-heavy and innovation-light. His approach flips the script:

• Distribution driven by first-party data
• Engagement built on frequent, high-utility tools such as Power Age and Milestone planning
• Trust established with clear, transparent content and unbiased Registered Investment Advisors (RIA)

Backed by a stellar second line – a team he’s worked with at Uni Cards – with leadership experience across Groww, Unacademy, and Flipkart, Prateek is building not just a product, but a movement.

In our conversations, what impressed us most was Prateek’s nuanced understanding of distribution. His playbook for growth isn’t about burning capital, it’s about crafting content loops, viral acquisition funnels, influencer-led discovery, and delivering consistent alpha to users over time. We believe few founders are as well-equipped to solve for trust + scale + monetization in wealth.

Why Now? Why  PowerUp?

PowerUp is playing in a wide-open lane: tech-led, unbiased wealth advisory for India’s mass- affluent – a segment that’s too large to ignore and too underserved for too long.

In a landscape where incumbents are biased (MFDs), expensive (wealth managers), or execution-only (brokers), PowerUp is uniquely positioned to become the most trusted advisor for India’s next 100 million investors.

This is not a bet on “yet another mutual fund app.”

This is a bet on transforming the financial destiny of India’s emerging investor class – through advice they can trust, content they can understand, and products they can afford.

“The essence of investment management is the management of risks, not just the management of returns.”
— Benjamin Graham

At Kae, we believe PowerUp has the potential to do just that – and we are excited to partner with Prateek and his team on this journey to help millions of Indians move from just saving to truly building wealth.