Behind the Term Sheet: Range’s $28M Series B
Affordable, personalized, AI-powered wealth management for All Americans
The wealth management market is massive: ~$29T managed by RIAs and $250K in lifetime fees paid to advisors per household. Yet, less than half of US households work with advisors due to prohibitive costs — leaving the majority of Americans without personal financial guidance to build brighter financial futures.
Now, the up-and-coming “mass affluent” generation (30–45 year olds making $350K-$1M+) is more engaged with their finances than ever and demand more affordable, tech-forward solutions. Wealth management for the forgotten “Messy Middle” represents a large, untapped opportunity…until now.
Enter Range — an AI-enabled wealth management platform granting American mass affluent individuals and families (~30% of the population!) access to personalized financial guidance for the first time. Headquartered around the Washington D.C. area and launched in 2023, Range puts digital-first wealth advisory at its clients’ fingertips via its annual subscription model. Its leading tech-driven efficiencies enable it to deliver real-time financial expertise at a fraction of the cost, even for the most complicated financial scenarios.
At Cathay Innovation, we just led Range’s $28M Series B, joining a leading syndicate of AI and consumer fintech investors like Gradient Ventures (Seed and Series A lead), 8-Bit Capital and Red Sea Ventures, as well as new strategic and institutional investors Hanwha, 10x Capital, Brave Capital and Gaingels. We believe that Range, flipping unit economics and disrupting traditional models, has the potential to completely redefine the future of wealth advisory. Here’s why…
AMIDST THE “GREAT WEALTH TRANSFER” — YOUNGER GENERATIONS GETTING RICHER EARLIER BUT UNDERSERVED BY STATUS QUO.
With the ‘Great Wealth Transfer’ underway, where Baby Boomers are passing down an unprecedented ~$9T in assets over the next 30–40 years, Millennials and Gen Z are accumulating more wealth earlier.
The US also continues to see growth of the HENRY subset (High Earners, Not Rich Yet), the middle-aged, upper-middle class self-made professionals. These aren’t the multi-million dollar net worth bankers and trust fund babies that fit the 2008 definition of “rich” — these are the hard-working managers, consultants and small business owners increasingly being squeezed by growing alternative minimum tax, making a sizable salary still feel insufficient for financial security. This dynamic is driving demand for financial guidance sooner as these generations juggle lifestyle expenses (mortgages, school tuitions, etc.) and today’s grossly inflated prices.
Millennials and Gen Z overwhelmingly reject their parents’ financial advisors, with ~90% citing a preference for tech-first, affordable wealth management tools that legacy players (like Edward Jones or Fidelity), don’t offer.
Why? The wealth management industry remains rooted in decades-old models that leave younger, tech-savvy generations underserved.
KEY ISSUES AT PLAY:
- Legacy Players Are Prohibitively Expensive: Traditional advisors monetize via fees on assets-under-management (AUM) with minimums most Americans can’t afford. Incentives are inherently misaligned as advisors target older, wealthier individuals (starting around 52 years old) requiring ~$500K-$1M+ in investable assets. This excludes the mass affluent — affording a few thousand dollars per year for financial peace of mind but not tens of thousands.
- Lack of Modernization with Aging Advisory Base: financial planning and client engagement remain driven by hours-long in-person meetings, manual updates and physical print-outs that lack flexibility, visibility and collaboration. The average advisor is 60+ years old, bogged down with day-to-day manual data entry, market research, portfolio rebalancing, etc. The industry continues to struggle with an aging advisor base and growing labor shortage, leaving legacy platforms unable to innovate.
- Digital (Tech-Light) Solutions Lack Sophistication: On the other end, budgeting and expense management apps that target the < 30 demographic don’t cover more sophisticated financial needs like tax and education planning. Take apps like Betterment and Wealthfront for example — they’re roboadvisors are popular among Millennials, but they don’t solve for the needs of the ‘Messy Middle’ who want and will pay for hyper-personalized guidance and more holistic wealth planning beyond portfolio management.
We often over-simplify wealth advisory as finding ways to generate more alpha, but it is so much more — tax planning and preparation, family and generational wealth planning, seeing all finances across asset classes in a single pane, the list goes on. Emotions also play a far larger role in personal finance than we’d like to admit, making the trust built via human connections perhaps the most important aspect of financial advisory — also a key reason why we’ve seen little innovation in the space.
The rise of this wealthier, younger, but financially unsure demographic is accelerating demand for digital-first financial advisory solutions for modern consumers — departing from legacy advisors towards new models that prioritize speed, flexibility and price.
ENTER RANGE — THE NEW FACE OF DIGITAL-FIRST WEALTH ADVISORY
Range’s AI-enabled platform delivers personalized financial guidance to its clients and their families, largely mass affluent and high net-worth Americans, with solutions that span the gamut of financial planning — from investment optimization and tax management to family and retirement planning.
The kicker — its tech-forward approach to financial planning delivers a 10x better customer experience at a fraction of the cost while maintaining the human touch needed to earn client trust.
At a high level, Range arms a lean team of registered financial advisors with tech and “RAI” (Range AI), its proprietary suite of AI tools, to deliver more automated wealth advisory and a single-pane-of-glass “financial OS” — allowing clients to engage and analyze finances (individual or household) in real time. This makes financial planning a much more transparent, collaborative exercise vs. another task owned by the matriarch/patriarch. With AI and tech-augmented advisors, Range takes a novel “1 client: many experts” approach to provide a breadth of expertise at scale rather than being constrained by the knowledge and bandwidth of a single advisor in the traditional 1:1 model. This allows the company to help clients solve even the most complex financial scenarios while abstracting away the obscurity of personalized financial management.
THE VC VIEW — HERE’S WHAT EXCITES US MOST ABOUT RANGE:
The Model: Unit economics makes or breaks a business and Range’s co-pilot model enables sustainable growth with best-in-class margins — passing cost savings to customers. Its flat subscription pricing insulates it from the macro, industry-wide fee compression pressures, a growing challenge for legacy advisors and full-stack new entrants alike. While many fintechs focus on tools (“arms dealer” models), we see Range’s opportunity to build the next Vanguard or a leading back-pocket family office brand as far greater.
The Team: Range was founded by Fahad Hassan and David Cusatis after experiencing the lack of solutions offering both personalization and affordability during their own financial planning. Fahad, Co-Founder and CEO, is a 2x founder and former founding executive at Convoy, instrumental in scaling the business from $0-$1B+ valuation. David, Co-Founder and CTO, is a seasoned full-stack engineer, hailing from IBM, Amazon and Twitch. From our first interactions, Fahad, David, and the broader team have impressed us with their vision, execution, and ability to build a high-caliber, high-velocity organization — remarkable for a company at this stage.
The Traction: Since its Series A last year, Range has grown substantially — adding hundreds of new clients every month and on track to 4x top line this year. Engagement metrics stand out — clients are logging in and engaging with the platform multiple times a month (and even weekly), a stark departure from the 2–4 touchpoints typical of legacy advisors. The frequency, and growing resonance with “traditional” affluent clients as well, underscores the demand for modern wealth management solutions.
The Vision: Personalized financial solutions are just the start. Range’s long-term vision is to become a one-stop shop for every stage of any family’s financial life, fully automated by AI. Its AI-enabled advisory services are the initial wedge — building towards the next-generation consumer fintech brand with full-stack agentic AI.
PARTING THOUGHTS
At Cathay Innovation, we’re thrilled to lead Range’s Series B and believe that our global network of corporates, portfolio companies, and thought partners can offer several levers to support growth.
We’ve been long-time believers and backers of consumer fintechs like Chime (leading neobank in the US), Finaccel (banking the underbanked in Southeast Asia), Alma (bringing the BNPL movement to Europe), Kueski (pioneering inclusive online lending in Mexico), and many more. We’re backed by a deep, global network of financial institutions and asset managers like BNP Paribas and BPI France, making the collective resources and knowledge of our global consumer fintech team a unique compliment to Range. We’re honored to be an early partner in Range’s journey towards becoming a generational company and we’re just getting started.
CAREERS — RANGE
Interested in joining an exceptional, high-velocity team reimagining personal finance? Range is hiring across all departments — check out open roles here!
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