New York-based Pave Finance has closed an oversubscribed Series A round of more than $15 million at a $100 million pre-money valuation, giving the AI-powered portfolio management platform fresh capital to expand its engineering and market-facing teams.
The financing, which follows Pave's $14 million oversubscribed seed round in September last year, drew participation from advisory firms, former executive officers and board members of major financial services firms, and company insiders, the company said.
Chief executive Christopher Ainsworth framed the raise as a response to structural pressure building across the advisory business.
"Reaching this funding stage reflects the growing demand for modernized platforms we're witnessing within the financial advisory space," Ainsworth said. "As advisory businesses grow, firms must now find efficient ways to manage a larger volume of clients who are simultaneously demanding greater personalization in their portfolios."
"This funding gives us additional resources to grow our team and continue investing in the technology that saves advisors time and resources, ultimately translating to lower fees and more tailored client experiences," he added.
It may take some time before AI adoption results in lower dollar costs for the client, though they can expect more value. One new study by Cerulli, published in partnership with Vista Equity Partners, expects AI will augment advisors, enabling firms to maintain fee levels while expanding service capacity.
"AI use is pervasive across the RIA space, but firms are applying it to expand advisor capacity rather than reduce headcount," the Cerulli report said. "Firms have a greater opportunity to
redeploy advisor capacity toward higher-value work."
Pave, founded in 2021, tracks more than 50,000 publicly traded securities globally and lets advisors build, personalize and manage client portfolios while excluding sectors or holdings, accounting for existing positions and tax considerations, and optimizing for individual risk tolerance. The platform integrates with custodians to speed onboarding, with more than 170 custodians currently integrated, according to the company.
The firm's leadership draws on a combined 200-plus years of experience at firms including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan and Fidelity, alongside technology veterans from Google, Apple, Meta and Wealthfront.
The raise lands amid a wider wave of venture capital flowing into wealthtech this year, most if not all of which is aimed at automating the operational side of advice. Fintech firm Feathery recently closed a $30 million Series A backed by Portage and Bain Capital to expand AI-driven RIA operations, while smaller entrants such as WealthReach have raised seed rounds to build AI-powered growth tools for advisors.
Pave's valuation jump also comes as the addressable market keeps expanding. It pointed to projections of global wealth management assets under management reaching $217.4 trillion by 2031, with the industry generating $3.4 trillion in annual revenue by 2030.
The data on RIA firms' current appetite for AI is somewhat mixed. One recent white paper from Astraeus Wealth, produced with Pirker Partners, found that only 6% out of more than 6,384 independent private wealth RIAs disclosed any use of artificial intelligence, machine learning or algorithmic tools in their Form ADV Part 2As as of March 2026, representing roughly 11% of industry assets under management. Larger firms played an outsized role in that story: 16% of RIAs managing between $5 billion and $25 billion in assets disclosed AI use, compared with 5% of firms managing less than $1 billion, the report found.
According to Schwab's 2026 RIA Benchmarking Study, 83% of firms with $250 million or more in assets under management are reportedly using some form of AI, which includes AI for administrative tasks (65%), developing client correspondence (49%) and generating marketing content (48%).
Far fewer firms in Schwab's survey reported using AI to analyze portfolios (18%), though nearly all respondents (98%) agreed they got the greatest ROI from their portfolio management systems.
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