SMBC Asia Rising Fund Leads INR 280 Crore Series A Investment in Indian Wealthtech Platform Centricity
Gurugram-headquartered WealthTech platform Centricity Wealth Tech Private Limited has raised INR 280 crore (approximately USD 29 million to USD 33 million) in a Series A funding round led by SMBC Asia Rising Fund. The corporate venture capital fund—jointly established by Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Incubate Fund Asia—led the injection alongside a consortium of returning institutional investors and family offices. Existing backers participating in the round include Lightspeed India Partners, Burman Family Office, RAAY Investments (the family office of Amit Patni), Kuldeep Rathi Family Office (ASK Automotive), Stride Ventures, and InnoVen Capital.
The newly acquired capital will fund the expansion of Centricity's B2B2C wealth distribution network, support technology enhancements across its core software engines, and accelerate the growth of its private wealth and non-resident Indian (NRI) advisory verticals. Centricity is deploying specialized cross-border teams across international financial hubs, specifically targeting expansion through Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) in India and the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in the United Arab Emirates. To support this institutional growth, the company plans to hire more than 50 private bankers for its domestic wealth business alongside 35 to 40 bankers dedicated to foreign currency and NRI accounts.
This funding round highlights an increasing trend of Japanese banking groups investing directly in South Asian financial technology platforms. By partnering with SMBC, Centricity secures strategic backing that integrates commercial banking capabilities, structured credit access, and international financial distribution channels with its domestic wealth infrastructure.
Corporate Origin and Capitalization History
Centricity was founded in early 2022 by chief executive officer Manu Awasthy alongside co-founders Aditya Shankar, Pushpendra Singh, Gaurav Tiwari, and Manish Sharma. The founding team created an integrated wealth management platform that combines open-architecture product access with portfolio reporting, risk analytics, and trade execution tools designed specifically for independent financial advisors and single-family offices.
The platform's capital structure has expanded rapidly since its launch. In September 2022, Centricity completed a $4 million pre-seed funding round at a post-money enterprise valuation of $20 million. Two years later, in September 2024, the company raised a $20 million seed round led by Lightspeed India Partners at a valuation of $125 million—a six-fold step-up in equity value. The seed round included participation from global institutional investors and private family offices, including South Korea's Paramark VC, the MS Dhoni Family Office, the Burman Family Office, and angel investors such as Ritesh Agarwal (OYO) and Vishal Dhupar (MD, Nvidia India).
Financial disclosures demonstrate rapid growth since operational launch. Centricity reported top-line revenue of INR 13.5 crore in FY23 alongside a net burn rate of INR 1.77 crore. Total revenue grew more than three-fold in FY24, supported by advisor onboarding and asset aggregation across its software platforms. Backed by its Series A deployment, management expects top-line revenue to exceed INR 150 crore in FY27, maintaining an operational growth rate of nearly 200% year-over-year.
Product Architecture and Operating Model
Centricity operates a B2B2C model organized around two proprietary technology platforms: One Digital and Invictus. These applications address structural friction points for independent financial product distributors (FPDs) and high-net-worth single-family offices (SFOs).
The One Digital platform functions as a digital marketplace and practice management system for independent financial advisors. It aggregates various investment vehicles—including mutual funds, alternative investment funds (AIFs), portfolio management services (PMS), corporate bonds, listed equities, insurance products, and offshore investment strategies—into a single transactional platform. By automating onboarding, regulatory compliance, portfolio consolidation, and client reporting, One Digital enables independent advisors to manage complex client accounts with reduced back-office costs.
The Invictus engine provides institutional analytics and portfolio diagnostic tools designed for single-family offices and ultra-high-net-worth investors. The platform consolidates multi-custodial assets, tracks investment mandates, generates risk analytics, and applies Generative AI modules to model multi-asset portfolio performance.
This platform combination supports an "Employee-to-Entrepreneur" (E2E) transition across India's wealth sector. Historically, senior private bankers leaving established institutions lacked the back-office software, multi-custodial reporting tools, and broad product pipelines needed to run independent practices. Centricity acts as an outsourced operating system, offering the infrastructure required for relationship managers to establish independent advisory businesses.
Strategic Synergies with Japanese Institutional Capital
The investment by SMBC Asia Rising Fund highlights a broader strategic move by major Japanese banking groups to secure early distribution infrastructure across high-growth South Asian fintech markets. Co-established by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Incubate Fund Asia, the $200 million venture fund targets growth-stage technology investments that create direct synergies with SMBC's institutional banking, treasury, and asset management units.
SMBC's investment strategy focuses on financial technology platforms operating at scales capable of bridging Indian capital markets with cross-border banking networks in Japan and Southeast Asia. Centricity represents the fund's sixth major equity deployment in India. Previous investments include acquiring a 4.99% stake in Shivalik Small Finance Bank for $7 million, participating in a $7 million round for debt-collection startup DPDzero, and joining a $20 million financing round for supply chain finance provider Vayana Network.
The strategic alliance delivers operational advantages to both organizations. For Centricity, alignment with SMBC provides institutional credit capabilities, foreign exchange clearing infrastructure, and structured product access required to serve global private wealth clients. For SMBC, Centricity’s network of over 20,000 financial distributors creates a direct channel to distribute foreign currency products, cross-border yield strategies, and international private equity funds directly to Indian family offices and high-net-worth investors.
Macroeconomic Context and WealthTech Market Benchmark
Centricity's rapid valuation growth reflects broad structural changes in India's domestic asset mix. Driven by corporate earnings growth, rising personal incomes, and expanding capital markets, Indian household savings are moving away from physical assets like real estate and gold toward regulated financial instruments. Financial assets as a percentage of total household wealth in India grew by 15% over the past decade, increasing capital flows into mutual funds, systematic investment plans, alternative assets, and equity portfolios.
This systemic shift has attracted significant private equity and venture capital to wealthtech infrastructure providers. Data from intelligence platform TheKredible shows that Indian wealthtech startups raised over $200 million across 12 institutional rounds in recent months, demonstrating strong investor demand for platforms that digitize wealth distribution.
Compared to direct-to-consumer digital brokerages that face high acquisition costs and fluctuating retail trading volumes, B2B2C infrastructure providers like Centricity benefit from stable, recurring fee structures linked to long-term assets under management.
Operational Outlook and Industry Implications
Centricity's Series A expansion highlights a broader transformation within India's wealth management industry, where competitive advantage is shifting toward enterprise technology platforms. Regulatory oversight from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) continues to emphasize transparency, fee unbundling, and fiduciary standards, encouraging traditional advisors to adopt institutional-grade technology.
Centricity plans to direct its new capital toward three main strategic initiatives:
- Technology and Engineering Expansion: Doubling its technology development team from 75 to over 150 specialists to build Generative AI risk modules, insurtech capabilities, and stock-broking software.
- Private Client Advisory Recruitment: Hiring senior wealth managers to expand its domestic private banking units and build dedicated NRI advisory desks serving clients across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
- Offshore Structuring and Cross-Border Hubs: Expanding its operational footprint in GIFT City and the Dubai International Financial Centre to capture cross-border investment flows from foreign institutional investors and global Indian family offices.
Supported by institutional backing from SMBC Asia Rising Fund and Lightspeed, Centricity is positioned to capture a growing share of India's advisor infrastructure market. As independent advisory networks expand across the country, platforms providing integrated technology, open product access, and institutional execution are set to become essential infrastructure for South Asia's private wealth ecosystem.
Norbert Gehrke
