Goldman, Citi back NaviPlan architects in fresh bet on AI-powered financial advice

Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are among a group of investors betting on artificial intelligence to modernize financial planning, backing a Canadian fintech firm that’s expanding its presence among wealth managers in the US and abroad.

Conquest Planning, a Winnipeg-based fintech launched in 2018, has raised $80 million in a Series B round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives’ growth equity team, the firm announced Monday. Citi Ventures, TIAA Ventures, BDC Capital, USAA and Canapi Ventures also joined the round as new investors, while existing backers BNY and Portage returned.

The company has raised over $100 million in total funding to date from investors on both side of the US-Canada border. On the Canadian side, it has gotten financial votes of confidence from RBC, one of Canada's largest banks, as well as IGM Financial and Desjardins.

Goldman’s investment highlights the growing interest among large financial institutions in tools that use AI to scale advisor-led planning. Conquest’s platform, currently used by firms such as Morgan Stanley and Raymond James, generates tailored planning suggestions after analyzing various financial data points including income and retirement savings. The firm said it will use the new capital to expand in the US and UK and further develop its product suite, including its proprietary Strategic Advice Manager.

“In periods of macro volatility, the need for a modern, comprehensive and flexible financial planning platform becomes even more pronounced,” Jade Mandel, managing director at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, who will join Conquest’s board, said on Monday.

In a Monday morning report, Barron’s noted the company expects to reach profitability by the third quarter. The firm declined to disclose its valuation to the publication.

As part of its expansion, Conquest is rolling out a new feature called SAM Bytes. According to the company, this tool is designed to help advisors maintain engagement with self-directed investors at key moments in the financial planning process, with the goal of fostering longer-term relationships built on trust.

Conquest’s technology supports a range of advisory models, from retail-focused banks to RIAs and high-net-worth platforms. The firm says its AI tools are intended to augment rather than replace advisor-led guidance, and it is developing a chatbot to assist professionals in answering client planning questions more efficiently.

CEO Mark Evans, who previously founded NaviPlan, one of the earliest digital planning tools for advisors, leads the 160-person company. He sold that business to Zywave in 2011, but after years of losing market share, the software changed hands again in 2021 with InvestCloud's acquisition of Zywave's financial solutions division, which by that point been renamed Advicent.

Evans launched Conquest with a focus on delivering scalable, personalized advice across markets. The firm entered the UK in 2022 and has already established relationships with more than 15,000 advisors in Canada.

“We think that there is certainly a world where we provide a very valuable service into either a strategic [buyer] or ultimately some sort of private equity that could come along and have interest in Conquest,” said Brad Joudrie, Conquest’s chief revenue officer, in an interview with Barron’s. “We still have a lot of work to do in front of us that we want to execute against, to continue to strengthen our product and platform.”

In a statement, the firm said it aims to “modernize financial planning with customized and convenient advice,” and is focused on serving clients across advisory, insurance, wirehouse, and pension channels.