Vise

Vise builds software that constructs, manages and explains personalized investment portfolios, offering direct indexing, tax loss harvesting, fixed income and long/short strategies to independent financial advisors, institutions and individual investors. It now describes itself as autonomous infrastructure for investing. The company was founded in 2016 by Samir Vasavada, the chief executive, and Runik Mehrotra, the chief technology officer, who met as teenagers at a Northwestern University summer research program. Vise launched publicly at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco in October 2019, and its website lists its headquarters at 521 Broadway in New York.

The founders initially funded the company themselves and took a $20,000 uncapped note from Dorm Room Fund. Its company site says Flatiron Health co-founders Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg provided the first $100,000 and that Founders Fund co-led a $2 million seed round; TechCrunch reported Keith Rabois of Founders Fund and Ben Ling of Bling Capital led that round, with Great Oaks Ventures, Pete Flint of NFX and Contrary Capital participating. In May 2020 Sequoia Capital, through partner Shaun Maguire, led a $14.5 million Series A with Founders Fund, Bling Capital and Human Capital, bringing total funding to $16 million. On May 18, 2021 Vise announced a $65 million Series C led by Ribbit Capital with Sequoia participating, at a $1 billion post money valuation and more than $125 million raised in total. A Form D filed in June 2021 reports $110.6 million sold in an offering of about $132.4 million that began May 18, 2021.

Vise remains privately held. At the Series C it managed about $250 million in client assets, up four times since its Series B, and it hired former Dropbox executive Andrew Fong as chief technology officer in January 2021. No later priced round or exit has been disclosed in the sources reviewed, and the company continues to sell its platform to advisors and institutions.

Vise shows how quickly a fintech can reach a billion dollar price on growth expectations rather than scale. Dorm Room Fund, Founders Fund and Bling Capital entered at or before the seed, Sequoia led the first institutional round, and Ribbit Capital priced the company at $1 billion about five years after founding while assets under management stood at $250 million. Investors in the 2021 round have not yet had a liquidity event.