Y Combinator veterans share how they raised $15 million to build an AI money manager

"Serial entrepreneurs and two-time Y Combinator grads Dillon Erb and Daniel Kobran announced Wednesday that they have raised $15 million to build a personalized AI-powered financial advisor. Erb and Kobran sold their first startup, the GPU cloud company Paperspace, to DigitalOcean for $111 million in 2023. The idea for their latest startup, Autonomous Technologies Group (ATG), emerged as they sought to organize their finances following the sale."

"Autonomous aims to compete with the robo-advisors and traditional wealth managers that Erb and Kobran say offer generic advice or charge steep fees. "We're not saying that we have an AI that's going to pick all the best stocks for you," Erb said. Rather, Autonomous helps users implement strategies employed by the ultrawealthy, such as lowering taxes by managing individual stocks instead of standard index funds, and automatically adjusting portfolios to manage risk."

"Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan led ATG's $15 million pre-seed round through a dedicated YC alum vehicle. Tan partnered with Erb and Kobran during their first stint at YC in 2015. BoxGroup and Collaborative Fund also participated in ATG's pre-seed round. The company has 15 employees across New York and San Francisco, and it will use the funds to hire more product engineers and AI researchers."

Dillon Erb and Daniel Kobran founded Autonomous Technologies Group (ATG) to build Autonomous, an AI-powered wealth strategist that applies ultrawealthy investment techniques. The founders sold Paperspace to DigitalOcean for $111 million in 2023 and launched ATG after reorganizing their own finances. Autonomous targets robo-advisors and traditional managers by offering personalized, tax-aware strategies such as managing individual stocks rather than index funds and automatically adjusting portfolios for risk. YC CEO Garry Tan led a $15 million pre-seed round with BoxGroup and Collaborative Fund. The company employs 15 people across New York and San Francisco and will hire engineers and AI researchers.

Read at Business Insider