Why We Invested in PowerUp Money
Over the past decade, India has witnessed a remarkable transformation in investment access. Platforms like Groww and Zerodha have dramatically simplified investing, driving over ₹23,000 crore in monthly SIP inflows and enabling millions of Indians to enter the mutual fund market. But as participation grows, a deeper problem has become visible — while India has democratized access, it has not yet democratized advice.
At Blume, we believe that democratization of advice — not just democratization of execution — is the next major unlock for India’s retail investing market. True democratization of wealth creation can only happen when quality advisory, personalized and unbiased, becomes broadly accessible. This deep conviction led us to back PowerUp Money.
The Growing Advice Gap
Today, India’s mutual fund market boasts over 50 million active investors, yet fewer than 1,000 SEBI-registered investment advisors serve this rapidly expanding base. To put this into perspective, that’s roughly one registered advisor for every 50,000 investors — a staggering mismatch compared to developed markets where advisory services are far more accessible and structured.
Due to this scarcity, retail investors rely heavily on fragmented, unstructured, and often unreliable sources of financial advice. These include informal guidance from family and friends, relationship managers incentivised primarily by commissions, and online influencers whose advice quality and motivations can vary significantly. The implications of this fragmented advisory environment are severe: widespread mis-selling of unsuitable financial products, portfolios that reflect misaligned risk tolerances, and investments poorly matched to real-life financial objectives.
According to recent market surveys, more than half of Indian retail investors have difficulty understanding fundamental financial concepts like compounding or risk diversification. Data from SEBI also underscores how pervasive mis-selling has become — particularly through commission-driven intermediaries. Such practices have led to significant investor dissatisfaction, portfolio underperformance, and an erosion of long-term financial well-being.
The pain points from this advice gap will become glaringly obvious in volatile or bear markets. Investors, who are confident during bull runs, quickly realize their portfolios lack adequate diversification or appropriate risk management when markets inevitably cycle downward. This has a knock-on effect: retail investors can become discouraged, potentially leading them away from disciplined investing and damaging their long-term wealth creation.
We believe addressing this advice gap isn’t merely a market opportunity — it’s an imperative for building a resilient and robust financial ecosystem in India. Without bridging this gap, India’s growing investment ecosystem risks stagnating, with millions of investors potentially left worse off despite having access to easy transactional platform.
PowerUp’s Unique Approach
PowerUp Money addresses this precise gap. While several startups have previously attempted to address this issue, most fell short — primarily because they prioritized product distribution or transactional incentives over genuinely understanding and aligning with customer needs.
What makes PowerUp fundamentally different is its deep-rooted customer centricity. With a transparent subscription model (₹999/year), independent of brokerage or commissions, PowerUp aligns its incentives directly with investors’ financial outcomes. Leveraging AI-driven personalization and clear, accessible guidance, the platform is designed to empower investors to make informed, confident decisions about their portfolios.
Their early traction speaks to this differentiation: through thoughtful content initiatives like the Power Academy educational series and user-friendly diagnostic tools like the Power Age Reports, PowerUp has already attracted significant interest from users who recognize the value of unbiased, structured advice delivered affordably and transparently.
A Team Built for This Challenge
At Blume, we’ve always believed that solving deep, consumer-centric problems requires a team that truly understands and prioritizes customer experience above all else. Founder Prateek Jindal embodies this belief. Previously co-founder and CPO at Uni Cards, Prateek demonstrated a consistent track record of building intuitive fintech products deeply aligned with consumer needs, combined with disciplined, sustainable growth strategies..
Prateek has assembled a strong leadership team with complementary expertise. Their collective understanding of customer pain points and how to solve them with simple, intuitive products sets PowerUp apart from past attempts in this space.
It was precisely this commitment to customer-centricity, combined with proven product-building experience, that convinced us at Blume that PowerUp is uniquely positioned to succeed where others have struggled.
Written by Ashish Fafadia and Joseph Sebastian
To read the press release, please click here