Within the wealth administration {industry}, monetary advisors face a important problem: spending extreme time on administrative duties as a substitute of specializing in consumer relationships and strategic recommendation. The statistics paint a transparent image – whereas 60% of consumer information gathering occurs throughout conferences, lower than 25% of those interactions are correctly documented because of the time-consuming nature of handbook note-taking and follow-up work. Zeplyn, based by former Google engineers with experience in AI and speech recognition, has emerged to sort out this industry-wide downside. Its AI-powered Assembly Assistant transforms unstructured consumer conversations into extremely correct notes, capturing monetary particulars, targets, and motion objects whereas streamlining the whole assembly course of from prep to follow-up. By automating these administrative burdens whereas sustaining compliance necessities, Zeplyn saves monetary advisors an estimated 10-12 hours per week – time that may be higher used on servicing consumer relationships and enterprise progress.
AlleyWatch caught up with Zeplyn CEO and Cofounder Period Jain to study extra concerning the enterprise, the corporate’s strategic plans, latest spherical of funding, and far, far more…
Who have been your traders and the way a lot did you elevate?
We raised $3M in seed funding, led by Leo Capital. Our traders have been Leo Capital, Converge and numerous angel traders.
Inform us concerning the services or products that Zeplyn gives.
Zeplyn Assembly Assistant, our flagship product, is designed particularly for monetary advisors and wealth administration corporations. It takes unstructured consumer conversations and turns them into extremely correct notes, capturing consumer monetary particulars, targets and aims, key dialogue factors, and motion objects. That is one space the place our AI actually shines.
In truth, one among our clients, who spent a big period of time testing and coaching different AI options, instructed us that no different device understood her agency’s acronyms and will summarize the complexities of their monetary planning conversations. She instructed us, “I didn’t suppose AI was wherever near with the ability to do it, till we discovered Zeplyn.”
Zepkyn Assembly Assistant additionally streamlines assembly prep, note-taking, and post-meeting workflows whereas fulfilling compliance necessities, saving monetary advisors a mean of 10-12 hours per week.
What impressed the beginning of Zeplyn?
My cofounder Divam Jain and I met at Google, the place we spent years constructing AI for Search, Voice Assistant, and speech recognition merchandise. Enthusiastic about the potential for utilizing our experience to reimagine how monetary advisors work, we began Zeplyn.
My introduction to the wealth administration {industry} got here via my classmates at Harvard Enterprise College, who’ve labored at corporations comparable to Morgan Stanley, and the college’s alumni community, lots of whom have been working their very own RIA practices. In digging deeper into the house, I realized that the consumer assembly course of is without doubt one of the costliest actions for a wealth administration agency. Advisors spend hours per day documenting consumer conferences and executing post-meeting follow-up duties. We additionally discovered that 60% of consumer information gathering occurs over conferences, but lower than 25% of consumer conferences are correctly documented due to the time-consuming nature of this course of. The antiquated handbook processes have been a giant downside, one we might clear up by introducing AI.
Passionate concerning the potential of AI to remodel workflows for monetary advisors, my cofounder and I got down to develop a gathering assistant that might assist automate the tedious however needed sections of the method: assembly admin duties and fulfilling regulatory reporting necessities. In doing so, we freed up wealth administration professionals to give attention to the human factor and ship higher outcomes for his or her purchasers.
How is Zeplyn totally different?
Zeplyn is a extremely correct end-to-end AI answer that streamlines the whole assembly course of: assembly prep, note-taking, process administration, and follow-ups. Constructed for monetary advisors and skilled to know the wealth administration context, Zeplyn Assembly Assistant delivers extremely correct, post-meeting structured summaries, making it a dependable device for documenting consumer interactions. It additionally meets the distinctive workflow necessities and safety and compliance requirements of the {industry}, and it may be used throughout video assembly platforms, in-person conferences, and dictations. Zeplyn integrates with current infrastructure and the advisor expertise stack with ease.
What market does Zeplyn goal and the way huge is it?
Zeplyn serves the wealth administration market, together with RIAs, brokerages, and household places of work. The market is experiencing vital progress and transformation, and we’re proud to be supporting it.
What’s your enterprise mannequin?
Zeplyn is obtainable for any sized RIA and brokerage, with pricing plans for the person advisor, multi-advisor groups, and enterprise deployments. Advisor Assistant licenses are additionally obtainable. Zeplyn gives seat-based pricing, with the flexibleness to decide on between month-to-month and annual subscriptions.
What are the largest challenges that you just confronted whereas elevating capital?
We had an incredible expertise, truthfully. Once we have been assembly with Leo Capital and Converge, we did our analysis and ready an in depth pitch deck that spoke to our choices, the product-market match, and the way it aligned with their respective portfolios. I do know it’s been a tricky 12 months for funding in tech, however we consider in our mission, and it was nice to seek out VCs that consider in it as nicely.
There are a couple of key issues to remember when attempting to safe funding, no matter exterior financial situations:
- Know your market. What are the ache factors? What are the gaps? How will your organization slot in?
- Collect as a lot validation and as many proof factors as you’ll be able to at your present stage. Speedy buyer acquisition? Main {industry} gamers vouching for the influence of your product? Statistics that again up your product thesis? Be sure you’re presenting these factors succinctly and speaking your worth.
- Know your viewers. If you’re doing VC outreach, be sure to perceive their current portfolio, their funding thesis, and the place you slot in. In the event you’re planning to pitch a VC that solely invests in a single {industry}, as an illustration, be sure to have a related product that’s sufficiently differentiated from their current investments.
What elements about your enterprise led your traders to jot down the verify?
Early-stage traders care quite a bit concerning the power of the founding group. At Zeplyn, we’ve constructed a powerful basis. Our product and go-to-market groups convey a mix of experience throughout AI, wealth administration, and enterprise SaaS. Our founding group contains engineers who convey greater than a decade of foundational AI, machine studying, and software program engineering expertise from main tech giants comparable to Google, and seasoned wealth administration professionals with greater than 20 years of expertise constructing advisory platforms at prime brokerage corporations comparable to Merrill Lynch and LPL Monetary.
This distinctive mixture of technical excellence and {industry} experience equips us with a profound understanding of the wealth administration sector’s complexities and the challenges our customers face. Our group’s capabilities permit us to design and ship strong, high-performing, and user-centric options that instantly deal with these ache factors, inspiring investor confidence in our imaginative and prescient and execution.
What are the milestones you propose to attain within the subsequent six months?
Over the following a number of months, we’re going to be targeted on a couple of initiatives:
- Person acquisition: Zeplyn has obtained a heat response and has grown three-fold within the final three months. We’re onboarding new advisors each week, largely via natural channels. We’re investing in gross sales and advertising, and we’re planning to develop our buyer base whereas persevering with to ship dependable and time-saving AI.
- Technological development: Our objective is to convey an AI-native perspective to wealth administration, rebuilding the {industry} and addressing important wants. Zeplyn is dedicated to reimagining the monetary advisor expertise, prime to backside. We’ve already launched new ranges of effectivity and consumer intelligence with Zeplyn Assembly Assistant, and we now have no plans of stopping there. Our imaginative and prescient is to construct a full stack workflow automation answer for monetary advisors that additionally handles subtle and complicated wealth administration workflows, serving as a single supply of fact.
- Workforce growth: We are going to broaden our product, engineering, gross sales, and advertising groups.
The place do you see the corporate going within the close to time period?
Zeplyn Assembly Assistant is our first product, and we’re constructing in the direction of a full-stack workflow automation answer that can deeply combine with advisor expertise and instruments to streamline different advanced wealth administration workflows— past consumer conferences.
With Assembly Assistant, we’ve solved for an enormous hole in consumer information gathering in conferences. Now that advisors can seize full and correct consumer information, they’ll leverage it to reinforce not simply their downstream workflows but in addition the general consumer expertise. We’re actually excited concerning the alternatives the info will unlock for advisors.
What’s your favourite fall vacation spot in and across the metropolis?
It’s touristy, however within the metropolis, Central Park is breathtaking all 12 months spherical. It hosts all kinds of wonders, from artwork distributors to concert events and performances to hidden gardens. There’s all the time one thing new to do and uncover, or if you happen to simply need to sit and calm down, you are able to do that too.
Farther afield, Beacon is value a visit. It’s an incredible little metropolis with artwork galleries, nature, and historical past. Particularly, the Storm King Artwork Middle hosts artworks that push the boundaries of their medium. It’s an enormous out of doors artwork museum, and it’s particularly gorgeous in fall.
Within the Catskills, Woodstock is a superb retreat in fall. There are climbing trails that can take you into nature, and it’s a enjoyable city to discover, with artwork galleries, retreats, and quirky retailers that hold the spirit of the Nineteen Sixties Woodstock and “Peace, Love and Music” alive.
