The Future of WealthTech
- Fiat Ventures
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
From push to pull; why the future of WealthTech is autonomous
Building on the foundational shifts of The Great Wealth Transfer, the wealth tech landscape is evolving from passive management to proactive, embedded participation. At Fiat Ventures, we believe the next generation of financial powerhouses won’t just manage wealth — they will meet consumers exactly where they are.
Our wealth tech thesis is built around the transition from Push to Pull products: moving away from forcing consumers into siloed financial apps and instead embedding financial intelligence into their daily discovery and purchasing journeys.
By centering our portfolio around three key pillars — conversion, retention, and autonomous wellness — we are backing the infrastructure that turns "financial management" into a seamless part of the consumer experience.
I. Capturing Intent: Closing the Gap Between Discovery and Purchase
The traditional e-commerce and financial journey is fragmented. A consumer discovers a product on social media but must navigate through multiple redirects to complete a transaction — a process where a three second redirect delay can slash conversion rates by up to 20%.
Henry Labs is solving this by building the AI-powered enterprise checkout agent. By enabling one-click embedded checkout directly on discovery platforms, Henry Labs allows consumers to buy the moment they discover. This reflects our core belief that the next wave of wealth tech is about eliminating friction. When you meet a customer at the point of intent, you aren't just a service; you are a utility integrated into their lifestyle.
II. Retaining Value: Turning Loyalty into a Revenue Driver
As wealth transfers to digitally native generations, the competition for deposits has reached a fever pitch. Traditional financial institutions are now fighting a hidden defection rate of 25% to 51%, as younger consumers keep their legacy accounts open but increasingly move their primary spending and liquidity to high-engagement fintech platforms that offer superior rewards.
Odynn addresses this as an "AI Shopify for loyalty and travel." Through its next-gen program manager and Traveler DNA™ APIs, Odynn helps banks and fintechs launch embedded travel and rewards programs that actually matter to the user. By turning what used to be a cost center (customer retention) into a revenue-generating opportunity through travel commissions and optimized redemptions, Odynn helps institutions stay "top of wallet" and increase customer lifetime value.
III. Autonomous Wellness: Moving Beyond the Robo-Advisor
The industry has seen a decade of "Robo-Advisors" that provide automated, yet static, portfolios. However, Gen Z and Millennials are increasingly resistant to the traditional 1% AUM fee for incremental advice, with many actively seeking alternative models like flat fees or subscriptions that better align with their digital-first expectations.
They don't want a dashboard; they want a "Waymo for money." Vibe Money is leading this shift with a more proactive approach to personal financial management. Vibe acts as a personal purchasing agent that helps individuals determine what they can actually afford in real-time, and how to best navigate the purchase in relation to your own financial position. By leading with proactive guidance, such as time to purchase vs cash flow cycles, Vibe "earns the right" to become a user's primary financial advisor.
What We’re Seeing in Wealth Tech
As we speak with founders in the space, we are looking for "innovative pull" rather than "incremental push." Here is what is currently on our radar:
Margin Expansion Over Market Expansion: In a high-interest-rate environment, the "growth at all costs" model has been replaced by a focus on unit economics. We are seeing a shift where AI allows fintechs to achieve high margins by automating information-heavy back-end operations that previously acted as a drag on profitability. While traditional institutions spend 10% to 20% of their budget to maintain legacy systems, AI-native firms can allocate nearly all their capital toward high-margin growth and scaling their user base without a corresponding increase in headcount.
The Contextual Environment: Taking cues from the "Super Apps" and systems in emerging economies like India, we are looking for startups that catch users in a "contextual environment" rather than forcing them to log into a separate bank app. With 67% of consumers expressing interest in a super-app experience that integrates banking into their daily digital life, the future belongs to those who embed financial services into the platforms where people already live and shop.
Trust Through Adjacent Services: We believe the next great wealth manager might start as a home-buying assistant or a personalized insurance concierge. Research shows that consumers are significantly more likely to trust their primary financial institution when they provide support through major life events, such as marriage, the birth of a child, a new job, or the death of a family member. Building trust through these high-stakes adjacent services creates a natural bridge to a broader, lifelong financial relationship that goes far beyond a simple bank or brokerage account.
At Fiat Ventures, we aren't looking for another robo-advisor. We are looking for the agents, the infrastructure, and the "concierge" that will navigate the trillions of dollars currently in motion. If you are building the "pull" of the future, we want to hear from you.
The Fiat Ventures Team