In as we speak’s episode, I’m joined by Gaurav Sharma, CEO and Co-Founding father of Capitalize a venture-backed fintech firm in New York centered on the retirement financial savings market.
Gaurav and I cowl a spread of matters, together with:
The Dimension of the 401K Rollover Situation:
After working in monetary companies for 10 years and at numerous companies, Gaurav gained acute information of the U.S. 401K financial savings situation — when employees change jobs, their 401K accounts don’t change with them. Coming from Australia additionally helped Gaurav achieve perspective on what a extra easy, necessary financial savings account seems to be like. Having grown up round entrepreneurs, Gaurav determined to deal with this drawback himself. Capitalize has discovered that 15–21M folks change jobs and 401K accounts per yr, and roughly 1/third of these folks money out their accounts, ($100M in complete) paying taxes and penalties on their cash. One other 3–4M folks go away their cash behind for an prolonged time frame. With these inefficiencies, Capitalize has calculated that there are $1.35T in belongings sitting inside forgotten 401Ks.
Capitalize’s Product and Buyer Base:
Capitalize gives a web based expertise that helps shoppers discover their outdated 401K accounts, evaluate and choose the appropriate IRA, and deal with the rollover course of on-line by way of top-tier consumer service to ensure the cash will get consolidated into 1 new account. At the moment, Capitalize predominantly serves people of their late twenties by mid-30s which have had 3–5 jobs since graduating. Nonetheless, Gaurav has seen this consumer base increase past the early adopters, right into a extra mainstream viewers. The success of this product has made Capitalize one in all Time’s Finest Innovations in 2021.
The Fundraising Course of:
Capitalize raised its Collection A spherical in February of 2021 from numerous outstanding fintech traders, together with Canapi Ventures (lead), Bling Capital, Greycroft, RRE Ventures and Walkabout Ventures. Gaurav credit investing in private relationships with VCs, and preserving them appraised of the progress Capitalize was making, for the success of their Collection A spherical. Whereas the fundraising course of is rarely simple, Gaurav and the group felt like they have been capable of streamline it as a lot as attainable.
___
Gaurav Sharma:
Gaurav leads Capitalize’s mission to assist folks save for retirement. Earlier than founding Capitalize, he labored for a number of the best-known monetary establishments, together with JP Morgan, UBS, Morgan Stanley, and as an investor at well-known hedge fund Greenlight Capital. After seeing how exhausting it’s for most individuals to grasp their retirement accounts, he determined to construct an organization that makes it simpler. An Australian by delivery, Gaurav lives in New York along with his spouse and their adopted pet, Lorenzo.
___
In regards to the Writer:
Anirudh Singh is a second-year MBA Candidate at The Wharton Faculty, the place he’s a part of the Wharton FinTech Podcast group. He has a ardour for financial improvement, enterprise capital, monetary companies, and all issues FinTech. Don’t hesitate to achieve out with questions, feedback, suggestions, and alternatives at singhan@wharton.upenn.edu.
In case you like this episode, you may additionally get pleasure from:
For extra insights from FinTech leaders, comply with:
