Myfi Democratizes Investment Advisory with AI-Powered Conversational Wealth Management for India's Retail Investors

India has over 100 million PAN card holders – a massive population of retail investors with capital to deploy. Yet according to SEBI reports, countless individual investors lose money trading complex instruments like futures and options without proper guidance. Enter Kiran Nambiar, Co-founder and CEO of Myfi by TIFIN, who returned from 13 years on Wall Street to build India's first AI-powered conversational investment advisory platform. Launched in January 2024 and already serving 10,000+ users, Myfi is democratizing wealth management through intelligent, personalized guidance that helps retail investors build confidence, take a long-term view, and achieve better financial outcomes through mutual funds and disciplined investing strategies.

"While the number of investors in India are growing rapidly – 100 million unique PANs plus or minus – there is very little happening in terms of guidance for these people. Nobody is really helping them to make decisions on what they should and should not do," Nambiar explains.

The Wall Street Foundation: From Bangalore to London to New York

Kiran Nambiar's journey to founding Myfi began in Bangalore, where he grew up and attended school (including boarding school). He then moved to London for undergraduate studies at Imperial College – one of the world's top universities – before launching his career in finance.

"I went to London to do my undergrad at Imperial College and then I continued to work there for a few years starting at Marlin which then got acquired by Bank of America, and then moved on to Morgan Stanley," Nambiar recalls.

After several years in London, Nambiar transferred with Morgan Stanley to New York, spending another six years in the heart of global finance. In total, he spent 13 years abroad – building deep expertise in financial markets, investment strategies, and wealth management before returning to India in 2017.

The Return to India: Identifying the Opportunity

When Nambiar moved back to India in 2017, he brought not just experience but a clear perspective on where the opportunities lay.

"I strongly believe that India was the market then and continues to be the market today where exponential growth is possible. We are over a billion people and the scale of our problems are much larger than most of the other countries globally," Nambiar reflects.

First Chapter: Building Firstmain – Product Engineering Excellence

Before Myfi, Nambiar founded Firstmain in 2017 – a product engineering company focused on marrying technology with design and user experience. The company was co-founded with Kenary (Nambiar's wife), who brought design and UX background to complement his engineering expertise.

"The idea was how do we marry engineering tech with design and good user experience to really bring that product to life," Nambiar explains.

The First Two Years: Building Portfolio and Reputation

The initial years were challenging, as the market wasn't yet willing to pay premium rates for high-quality product development and user experience. Rather than compromising on quality, Firstmain took a different approach.

"The first two years was definitely a struggle because people were not willing to kind of spend on good experiences, high quality product and things like that. So we said okay, let's spend two years just building a good portfolio of clients and work, and then we'll see where we can go from there," Nambiar recalls.

This strategy paid off. After two years of focused portfolio building, Firstmain began receiving inbound work requests through referrals and existing client relationships. The company's client roster grew to include both early-stage startups and large established businesses.

The TIFIN Acquisition: Gateway to WealthTech

In mid-2021, Firstmain began working with TIFIN – a US-based fintech company focused on wealth technology. What started as a small design project rapidly expanded.

"We started with a small design project for the consumer business there. Eventually, over the span of just six months, it went from a tiny project to more than half my company doing work for TIFIN," Nambiar explains.

Recognizing that Firstmain was essentially building TIFIN's core intellectual property, founder Dr. Vinay Nair made a strategic decision.

"V who is the founder of TIFIN said look, I can't outsource all my core IP. It seems like you guys are really enjoying this, why don't you come and be a part of the journey?" Nambiar recounts.

From Service Provider to WealthTech Builder

For Nambiar, this acquisition represented a stepping stone toward his ultimate goal: launching a fintech/wealthtech product in India. In February 2022, Firstmain was officially acquired by TIFIN, and the team became TIFIN's in-house product development arm.

The team spent the next two years building TIFIN's US products – both B2C and B2B solutions in the wealth management space. This experience provided invaluable insights into wealthtech product development, AI integration in financial services, and the US market's approach to investment advisory.

The India Opportunity: Underserved Wealth Advisory Market

By the end of 2023, Nambiar identified a massive opportunity in India's wealth management space. Despite having over 100 million investors, the country severely lacked accessible investment advisory services.

"Wealth advisory, wealth assistance, guidance – all of that is extremely underserved. There is an opportunity, and together with the kind of AI and conversational capabilities that we have today, we could really make an impact with a larger population of users," Nambiar explains.

The Myfi Vision: Conversational AI for Everyone

Myfi started with a simple premise: make investment advisory as easy as having a conversation. Rather than complex dashboards and overwhelming data, Myfi uses natural language processing and AI to understand investor questions and provide personalized, contextual responses.

"The idea behind Myfi is it is entirely conversational. You open the app, you land on a page, you've connected your portfolio, and we're able to give you some analysis on that," Nambiar describes.

How Myfi Works: AI-Powered Portfolio Intelligence

Myfi leverages India's digital public infrastructure, specifically the Account Aggregator framework, to securely pull in a user's complete investment portfolio – mutual funds, stock holdings, and other investments – into a single, unified view.

Core Features and Capabilities

• Portfolio Aggregation: Connect all investments through Account Aggregator for complete visibility
• Portfolio Analysis: AI-powered analysis of holdings, asset allocation, sector concentration
• Portfolio Scoring: Quantitative assessment of portfolio health and diversification
• Conversational Interface: Ask questions in natural language, get contextual answers
• Personalized Recommendations: Fund suggestions based on user profile, risk appetite, and goals
• Financial Education: Explain complex terms (expense ratio, diversification, etc.) in simple language
• Timely Notifications: Personalized alerts about portfolio performance and opportunities

The Technology Behind Myfi

Myfi combines multiple AI and machine learning technologies to deliver intelligent investment guidance:

• Large Language Models (LLMs): Power the conversational interface, understand natural language queries
• Financial Models: Proprietary algorithms for portfolio analysis, risk assessment, and recommendations
• Account Aggregator Integration: Secure access to user investment data across platforms
• Personalization Engine: Customizes responses based on user profile, age, risk appetite, and investment history
• Market Data Integration: Real-time market data, fund performance, and sector analysis

"We use AI and LLMs to understand what people are saying – language. We have also built some financial models behind that which allow you to get recommendations. We are capturing all this data about you in terms of what you've invested in, your risk appetite, age, things like that," Nambiar explains.

Philosophy: Long-Term Investing Over Short-Term Trading

Myfi's approach deliberately emphasizes long-term wealth creation over short-term trading – a crucial distinction in a market where many retail investors lose money chasing quick profits.

"Our goal is really long-term investing and long-term wealth creation. We are not a product where they're saying buy this today, sell this tomorrow," Nambiar emphasizes.

Focus on Mutual Funds, Not Stocks

Currently, Myfi focuses primarily on mutual funds rather than individual stocks – a strategic choice based on investor psychology and behavior patterns.

"Our focus at the moment is largely on mutual funds and we're not getting too much into the stock space because typically stock investors have a shorter term view. Mutual fund investors are willing to be more disciplined and take a longer term view, start SIPs, things like that," Nambiar explains.

Market Volatility: Building Investor Confidence

When asked about how Myfi helps investors during market downturns – like the five-month declining market period at the time of the interview – Nambiar emphasizes that confidence and perspective are more valuable than market timing.

"It helps you build more confidence around your investment journey. It helps you kind of take a long-term view. Markets historically have recovered. The data suggests that things do recover even from the most difficult situations," Nambiar observes.

Diversification and Risk Management

Myfi helps investors understand portfolio concentration risks through clear, actionable insights.

"If you have over 30% exposure to Tech, what does that mean? If tech moves, your portfolio will move in the same direction. There's more correlation there," Nambiar explains.

By highlighting sector concentration, asset allocation issues, and correlation risks, Myfi empowers investors to build more resilient portfolios.

Real User Impact: Success Stories and Early Results

While Myfi is still early in its journey (launched July 2024), Nambiar shares several anecdotal success stories from users who have benefited from the platform's intelligent recommendations.

Expense Ratio Optimization

One of Myfi's features compares funds within the same category and identifies opportunities to switch to lower-cost alternatives.

"There have been multiple people who have said hey, I looked at your recommendation and made this swap. They had funds which had a high expense ratio compared to others in that same category," Nambiar shares.

For example, if a user holds an infrastructure fund with a 2.1% expense ratio, Myfi might suggest similar infrastructure funds with 1.5% ratios – potentially saving significant money over time.

Stock to Mutual Fund Conversion

Myfi also helps stock investors transition to mutual funds when appropriate.

"If you're not somebody who's actively managing your portfolio, then here are some easier options for you where you don't have to keep checking it each day," Nambiar explains.

The platform analyzes stock portfolio composition (small cap, mid cap, large cap allocation) and recommends mutual funds with similar allocations – making it easier for passive investors to achieve diversified exposure.

Holistic Wealth Management

Myfi is expanding beyond investments to offer more comprehensive financial guidance.

"We're able to look at your credit report and say hey actually you have these loans that are higher interest rate, why don't you swap it out? So really looking at wealth more holistically – not just saying buy this, sell that, invest in this – but from a complete standpoint both in terms of investments as well as your credit," Nambiar reveals.

User Acquisition Strategy: Organic Growth Meets Physical Presence

Myfi has taken a measured approach to user acquisition, prioritizing quality over quantity and building an engaged user base through multiple channels.

Digital Acquisition Channels

"We have done PR and press, some affiliate campaigns, collaborations – but really focusing on that slightly more organic growth and product-led growth," Nambiar explains.

However, by mid-December 2024, Myfi deliberately slowed inorganic acquisition to focus on deepening engagement with existing users.

The Hybrid Digital + Physical Approach

What sets Myfi apart is its commitment to physical presence and education – holding workshops in tech parks and corporate campuses to have real conversations about investing.

"Today we're holding more workshops and being physically present in tech parks and things like that where we're able to have a conversation with users, explain to them what we're trying to talk about – not just talk about the app, but just generally talk about wealth, investing, financial markets," Nambiar explains.

These workshops address the apprehension and fear many retail investors feel – especially during market downturns. Rather than just convincing people to download an app, Myfi is building a community of educated, confident investors.

Addressing Market Fear and Apprehension

"There's a lot of apprehension about it and whether you should invest, whether you should not. Markets are down right now, what should you do? So it's a lot more than just convincing them to download an app – it's really about helping them through that investment journey," Nambiar emphasizes.

This education-first approach has led to more engaged users who understand Myfi's value proposition and are more likely to stick with long-term investing strategies.

Building a Fintech Product: Nambiar's Framework for Entrepreneurs

Having built both a successful product engineering company (Firstmain) and now a consumer fintech product (Myfi), Nambiar offers valuable insights for entrepreneurs looking to build products in any domain.

Step 1: Research and Market Understanding

"Research the space that you want to start the product in. Understand the landscape of the market – what other products are out there, what are customer pain points, gaps," Nambiar advises.

Before building anything, entrepreneurs must deeply understand the problem space and competitive landscape.

Step 2: Validate Early and Cheaply

Myfi validated demand before writing a single line of code for the actual product.

"The way we started as well in 2023, even before we built this product, we created a landing page where we were saying ChatGPT-like financial assistant coming soon, sign up to be on the wait list," Nambiar explains.

Nambiar shares an inspiring example of a mattress company that took validation to the extreme – collecting payments and orders for mattresses that didn't exist yet, then refunding the money to actually build the business.

"Really today with the tools available, you can start validating an idea with extremely low cost and effort. So I would say validate your idea as early as possible – that's the first thing to do," Nambiar advises.

Step 3: Develop Your Solution Hypothesis

Once you've validated demand, you need a clear hypothesis for how you'll solve the problem.

"A customer will tell you what they have seen and how they would like it to be, but they are not necessarily in a position to tell you what could be. It is up to you as a founder, as somebody who's designing the product, to try and figure out how this problem could be solved with all the kind of technology, tools, design available at your disposal today," Nambiar explains.

Entrepreneurs need conviction in their solution hypothesis – believing that their approach will work, even if customers can't articulate it themselves.

Step 4: Analytics and Data Tracking

"Analytics is everything, data is everything at these early stages. Plug into some analytics tools, make sure you have a good tracking plan, funnel setup – that will help you get a lot more data on what's working and what's not," Nambiar emphasizes.

Step 5: User Interviews and Iteration

Combine quantitative analytics data with qualitative feedback from user interviews.

"Going back and doing more user interviews, getting feedback, you can really understand more qualitative data on what's working and what's not and iterate from there," Nambiar advises.

Step 6: Release Early, Release Often

The final piece of advice: don't wait for perfection.

Myfi's first closed beta was released in just 3 months, with larger releases every 3 months thereafter.

"As soon as you see traction in a space, in an area, then kind of start to refine it. First version of our app in a sort of closed beta form, we released in 3 months. I would call it more an alpha release. Then every 3 months we started doing bigger and bigger releases and more rollouts from there," Nambiar describes.

AI and the Future of Entrepreneurship: Nambiar's Vision

Looking ahead, Nambiar offers valuable perspective on how entrepreneurs should approach AI and emerging technologies when building products for the future.

Bootstrapped Founders: Solve Today's Problems

"If you are starting a company today and you are bootstrapped, solve a problem that exists today. Figure out how to use AI to leverage it and solve a problem that is acute today that people are not able to solve," Nambiar advises.

For resource-constrained founders, the focus should be on immediate pain points – using AI as an enabler rather than the primary value proposition.

Well-Funded Startups: Can Solve Future Problems

"If you have more money and you can spend on research and development, in general then you have time to solve a future problem," Nambiar acknowledges.

Well-capitalized companies have the luxury of investing in longer-term bets that may not pay off immediately.

The AI Revolution: Beyond the Hype

Nambiar emphasizes that AI's impact goes far beyond buzzwords and pitch decks – it's fundamentally changing how we work and live.

"AI, LLMs, generative AI in general is really transforming the way we work today, we function today, in every aspect of our lives – whether it's an app on your phone, social media, how you write code, how you write articles," Nambiar observes.

He shares a remarkable example from his alma mater, Imperial College London, where generative AI helped a scientist discover a solution in weeks that had taken researchers years to find.

"It is really shifting and changing the paradigm of how people function today. So I think you really need to embrace it, you need to think about how it can solve a real world problem," Nambiar urges.

Don't Use AI for the Sake of Using AI

Despite his enthusiasm for AI's potential, Nambiar warns against opportunistic AI-washing.

"A lot of people are slapping AI on their pitch decks and what they're doing because it's the buzzword right now. I think that is the worst thing you could do. If you truly believe you don't want to use AI in your product or something else, don't use it, don't talk about it. Just be honest with what you are doing and have conviction that it will work," Nambiar advises.

Retail Investors vs. Institutional Investors: The AI Edge Myth

One common concern is that institutional investors with sophisticated AI algorithms and massive computing power will always have an edge over retail investors. Nambiar challenges this assumption.

Different Goals, Different Strategies

"The goal of different investors are different. The goal of a retail investor – even within retail individual investors, middle class, HNI, Ultra HNI – each user group has a different investment profile, different goal that they have," Nambiar explains.

AI plays different roles for different investor types. Myfi focuses on helping individual investors with long-term wealth creation – not competing with high-frequency trading algorithms.

Don't Chase Quick Money

Nambiar's advice to retail investors: stay away from short-term trading strategies.

"I don't think a retail investor should compete in that market. Those algorithms are built for different things. Stay away from anything that's trying to make you quick money as an individual investor. Institutional investors and larger players have different goals – they are mitigating risk, doing various things, and risk profiles are very different. So don't chase quick money because that's just a fallacy," Nambiar warns.

Conclusion: Democratizing Wealth Management for India's Mass Market

Kiran Nambiar's journey from Wall Street to Bangalore's startup ecosystem represents a broader trend: experienced finance professionals returning to India to solve massive problems that global incumbents aren't addressing.

Myfi isn't just another investment app – it's a mission to democratize wealth management and provide the guidance that 100 million+ Indian investors lack. Through conversational AI, personalized recommendations, and a long-term investing philosophy, Myfi is building a more confident, educated community of retail investors.

The company's growth – from concept to 10,000 users in less than a year – demonstrates the massive pent-up demand for intelligent, accessible investment advisory. Myfi's hybrid digital + physical approach, focusing on education and community building over aggressive growth hacking, positions it for sustainable success.

As India's retail investor base continues to expand and wealth creation becomes increasingly important for the middle class, platforms like Myfi will play a crucial role in shaping how the next generation invests. By leveraging AI not for quick profits but for long-term wealth creation, Myfi is helping retail investors build confidence, stay disciplined, and achieve better financial outcomes.

The future of investing in India isn't about chasing hot stocks or timing the market – it's about having intelligent guidance that helps investors make informed decisions, stay the course during volatility, and build wealth steadily over time. That's the future Myfi is building, one conversation at a time.

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