The company has another subsidiary, Uniresearch, which specialises in research and analysis.
“The funds will enable us to scale our research-first, full-stack brokerage offering, creating India’s first true stock market superapp for retail investors. Our focus will remain on delivering seamless, personalised, and actionable insights that simplify the investment journey for our users,” said Pranit Arora, cofounder and CEO of Univest.
“We look forward to leveraging this partnership to redefine the brokerage model and establish Univest as the go-to platform for retail investors in India,” he added.
Founded in 2022 by Arora, Vikash Agrawal and Avneet Dhamija, Univest simplifies investment management for retail investors. The platform offers advisory services catering to short-term, medium-term, and long-term investment strategies. It combines the expertise of the Securities and Exchange Board of India-registered advisors and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tools to provide stock recommendations, portfolio management, and market insights.
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Since its inception, the platform has attracted over three million sign-ups and over 150,000 paying subscribers. Univest offers paid membership plans that grant access to premium stock recommendations and trading strategies.Currently, Univest focuses on asset classes such as stocks, futures and options (F&O) and commodities. The platform recently exited the peer-to-peer (P2P) investment space following stricter rules implemented by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Before this round, Univest had raised $3 million from investors, including Trinity Media Group, senior executives from Reliance Industries, and angel investors such as Bella Vita Organic CEO Aakash Anand and Deep Bajaj of Sirona.
In the fiscal year ending March 2024, the company reported a revenue of Rs 10.1 crore, while its net losses stood at Rs 9.8 crore.
BII is a sector-agnostic venture capital fund that is an early-growth stage investor focusing on series A to C investments. To date, it has backed companies like Shiprocket, Eruditus, Licious, Nat Habit, Lendingkart, and Rupeek.
“Current investment solutions predominantly cater to ultra high net worth and high-income segments, leaving over 85% of the market—the retail investors—without access to meaningful advisory services. These investors are left to navigate a fragmented and disjointed investment landscape. Univest’s advisory-led model is uniquely positioned to bridge this gap,” said Pankaj Makkar, managing director, Bertelsmann India.
