Advisor AI startup Zeplyn adds ex-LPL leader Kabir Sethi to board

Wealth tech startup Zeplyn is preparing to make its mark in the advisory space as it gives a seasoned industry veteran a seat at its directors' table.

The firm announced on Thursday that it has appointed Kabir Sethi, a former senior executive at Merrill Lynch and LPL Financial, to its board of directors.

Sethi brings two decades of experience in digital wealth management and product development, a background that Zeplyn hopes will help guide its product strategy and market expansion.

“His leadership in fintech innovation and deep expertise in digital wealth management will help accelerate our mission to reimagine the financial advisor experience top to bottom, from an AI-native perspective,” Era Jain, co-founder and CEO of Zeplyn, said in a statement.

Sethi served as chief product officer at LPL from April 2022 until his departure in March last year, overseeing the evolution of the firm’s digital and wealth management platforms. Before that, he spent nearly 17 years at Merrill Lynch, where he led its digital wealth management strategy. Among other initiatives, his work included developing an advanced workstation platform for more than 20,000 advisors, a mobile app experience for advisors, and expanded digital onboarding and portfolio management capabilities.

Earlier in his career, he worked at American Express, focusing on consumer-facing digital product development and user experience.

“Technology continues to redefine the wealth management landscape, and AI is at the forefront of this transformation,” Sethi said in a statement Thursday.

Zeplyn, founded by two former Google engineers including Jain, develops AI-powered tools designed to streamline advisor workflows by reducing administrative tasks. The firm said its technology can cut manual work by more than 90 percent, allowing advisors to focus on client relationships and financial planning.

That bold claim is what helped it secure $3 million in financial backing through a seed funding round in November. That came from a coalition of investors led by Leo Capital, with Converge and other angel investors also chipping in.

One of Zeplyn's offerings, a meeting assistant, promises to convert conversational data into detailed notes in an industry-compliant fashion, while also automating meeting prep, documantation, and follow-up tasks. All told, the company said that translates into 10 to 12 hours of work hours saved per week.

The firm has yet to publicly announce wealth firm or financial enterprise partnerships, however, so their success in the already-burgeoning landscape of wealth AI-based wealth tech remains to be seen.