WealthTech Safari for the Week of April 3, 2026
- 12 hours ago
- 4 min read
WEALTHTECH SAFARI
A Guided Tour of WealthTech News
Week of April 3, 2026
State Street signals it’s ready to ‘disrupt’ RIA custody five years after abrupt exit, madly hiring Altruist veterans to build Apex-powered, ‘digitally native’ AI platform
• State Street Global Advisors, the asset management arm of one of the world’s largest custodian banks, is reportedly developing a digitally native RIA custody platform leveraging AI and Apex Fintech Solutions, having recruited several Altruist veterans.
• By re-entering the RIA custody market with a modern technology stack, State Street aims to challenge existing incumbents, though integrating agile startup culture with its legacy institutional framework presents a significant hurdle.
Knote: I really want this initiative to work and I think all advisors should too. The raw potential of a brand new, innovative, perhaps even digital custodial platform re-imagined from the ground up immediately sets me off on wistful daydreams. Combined with the global presence of State Street, it could be a milestone development. What I worry about is, even with the most modern technology and architecture, it might still need to touch the core technology of State Street, and therein lies the problem. But, if they can solve that problem, I think they will go a long ways towards solving the problems of our industry.
Free AI WealthTech platform debuts for advisors
• UX Wealth has launched riskDNA, a specialized AI-native platform offering advisors risk intelligence, portfolio analytics, financial planning, and CRM capabilities at no cost.
• By subsidizing advisor software costs through asset manager distribution intelligence, this platform introduces a new revenue model that could significantly reduce technology barriers for growing RIAs.
Knote: In my opinion, the dream architecture for a WealthTech would be a clean, centralized database with modular functionality hung off of it (CRM, portfolio construction, proposals, etc.). At the risk of attack, I will point out that the functionality does not necessarily have to be AI, but it can be. On the surface, riskDNA may be the closest thing I have seen yet.
Bachatt secures $12 million Series A led by Accel (India)
• Indian WealthTech startup Bachatt has raised $12 million in Series A funding to simplify financial planning and democratize access to wealth management for the nation’s underserved segments.
• This investment highlights a growing strategic focus on high-volume, low-friction digital platforms to capture emerging market investors early in their financial journey.
Knote: Bachatt launched last May and claims to already have 3 million users on their platform and looking to scale to 30 million users in the next 12–24 months. That is the kind of growth US platforms can really only dream about.
Fiduciary duties in selecting designated investment alternatives
• The Employee Benefits Security Administration has proposed a rule to create a process-based safe harbor for fiduciaries evaluating alternative assets for defined contribution plans.
• By emphasizing an asset-neutral, prudent fiduciary process, this regulation aims to reduce litigation risks and open the door for integrating alternative assets like private equity and digital assets into 401(k) lineups.
Knote: A big move forward for Alts2Wealth, except that our observation is that the defined fiduciary mandate that all fiduciaries “objectively and thoroughly evaluate all potential product offerings based on specific factors such as performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, benchmarks, and complexity” is not really feasible at the moment. Whoever steps into this gap with a due diligence product could build themselves a business as big or bigger than Morningstar, even if it is Morningstar itself.
T. Rowe Price names Bill Cashel as head of alternatives for its wealth channel
• T. Rowe Price, a global investment management firm with over $1.6 trillion in AUM, has appointed Bill Cashel as the new Head of Alternatives for U.S. Wealth to oversee and expand the delivery of alternative investment capabilities to wealth advisors.
• This strategic leadership hire signals T. Rowe Price’s aggressive expansion into the Alts2Wealth market, positioning the firm to capitalize on growing intermediary demand for both public and private market solutions.
Knote: The main thing to note here is that this is a new position and represents T. Rowe taking the gloves off in the Alts2Wealth fight, just as everyone has or will in the near term. I will also point out that I have not met a lot of slow people from AQR, so I suspect Bill Cashel will get things moving fairly quickly.
AI, fintech boom: QED Investors’ India field notes 2026
• QED Investors reports that artificial intelligence spending in Indian financial services will double by 2026, with global fintech revenues projected to hit $1.5 trillion by 2030.
• As AI becomes a core structural element, financial institutions are shifting from legacy channels to modular, embedded infrastructure to capture a rapidly expanding and digitally native investor base.
Knote: We keep saying it, but this is just math. India has a population of 1.5 billion people or so and the average age is 29. Their investor base is already 125 million and has been growing at a 29% CAGR over the last 5 years. GDP is projected in the 6–7% range and wealth is building rapidly. And yet, there are only about 1,000 RIAs. There really is only one answer: technology.
Dhan reportedly in talks to acquire Infinyte Club (India)
• Dhan, a fast-growing Indian trading platform, is reportedly in advanced discussions to acquire wealth management startup Infinyte Club for roughly $10 million to offer institutional-grade investment tools to its users.
• By integrating private market opportunities and portfolio tracking, Dhan exemplifies a growing industry shift where retail trading platforms are evolving into comprehensive wealth management ecosystems.
Knote: More action from India. WealthTech funding has tilted heavily at self-directed trading in India. There is nothing wrong with that except that the real problem India needs to solve is not Bitcoin trading but holistic financial advice, which is pretty much zero. We applaud Dhan given a hat tip that direction with this acquisition.