Today, we’re excited to announce our investment in Uprise, building the wealth management platform for everyone. Jess and Chris have extensive experience across consumer fintech and money management, having built highly relevant products at Wise, Earnin, Robinhood, and Justworks. We don’t think there’s a better team to build the next generation of personal finance software.
This investment is particularly special for me, as Jess is my older sister. Growing up, our mom spent over 20 years as a financial analyst at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Every day, she would assess the various risk factors of banks and other financial institutions, and on rare occasions, she would be dispatched to shut down troubled banks and provide support to its panicked customers. Jess and I had a front-row seat to the importance of making smart personal financial decisions, primarily because we’ve seen what happens when things go awry.
These past few weeks and months have put this in sharp relief. Inflation is at a 40-year high, the Fed just raised its benchmark rate by 0.75 points (the largest such increase since 1994), and a recession may be just around the corner. Lightly regulated crypto companies that promised high yields and safe harbors have paused deposit withdrawals and are flirting with bankruptcy. This downturn is coupled with the continued popularity of consumer fintech that provides retail investors with newfound access to a wide variety of alternative assets.
All of this makes today’s personal finance decisions more difficult and complex. And in a down economy, mistakes are amplified. Well-compensated financial advisors help their clients navigate this environment, but their services are traditionally reserved for people with $5M in net worth or more.
Uprise aims to break down that barrier, starting with recent graduates and those a few years out of college. This generation has never had access to meaningful wealth management support and are now encountering their very first bear market. For them, Uprise is coming at just the right time.
At Contrary, we serve a similar profile across our various communities. We’ve had the privilege of seeing our Fellows, VPs, and alums become enthusiastic early users. They’ve referred friends and colleagues, provided valuable product feedback, and helped the team iterate. Most important, they have made smart and savvy financial decisions with their hard-earned money, confidently navigating an uncertain economy by leveraging advice I wish I had when I was younger.
We couldn’t be more proud to partner with Jess, Chris, and the whole Uprise team as they continue on this critical mission to expand wealth management to everyone.
Disclosure: Nothing presented within this article is intended to constitute legal, business, investment or tax advice, and under no circumstances should any information provided herein be used or considered as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment fund managed by Contrary LLC (“Contrary”) nor does such information constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services. Information provided reflects Contrary’s views as of a time, whereby such views are subject to change at any point and Contrary shall not be obligated to provide notice of any change. Companies mentioned in this article may be a representative sample of portfolio companies in which Contrary has invested in which the author believes such companies fit the objective criteria stated in commentary, which do not reflect all investments made by Contrary. No assumptions should be made that investments listed above were or will be profitable. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual events, results or the actual experience may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in these statements. Nothing contained in this article may be relied upon as a guarantee or assurance as to the future success of any particular company. Past performance is not indicative of future results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Contrary (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for Contrary to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at www.contrary.com/investments.
Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by Contrary. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, Contrary has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Please see www.contrary.com/legal for additional important information.