Y Combinator Veterans Launch AI Wealth Manager

Autonomous Technologies Group (ATG) has emerged from stealth with $15 million in pre-seed funding to build an AI-powered financial advisor. Founded by Y Combinator veterans Dillon Erb and Daniel Kobran, the startup aims to democratize wealth management strategies typically reserved for the ultra-wealthy.

The funding round was led by Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator, via a dedicated alumni vehicle. ATG's flagship product, the Autonomous app, seeks to provide personalized financial guidance that goes beyond the generic advice offered by standard robo-advisors. The company plans to expand its workforce across New York and San Francisco to accelerate development.

Serial entrepreneurs Dillon Erb and Daniel Kobran announced the funding raise on Wednesday. Both are two-time Y Combinator graduates and previously co-founded Paperspace, a GPU cloud company. In 2023, they sold Paperspace to DigitalOcean for $111 million. The experience of managing their own finances following that exit sparked the idea for their latest venture.

The $15 million pre-seed round attracted significant attention from the venture capital community. Garry Tan, who partnered with the founders during their first stint at Y Combinator in 2015, led the investment. Other participants in the round included BoxGroup and Collaborative Fund.

Tan expressed strong confidence in the team, stating, "The financial advisory industry is one of the last holdouts where human intermediaries extract massive value without creating it." He added that ATG represents "the right team at the right inflection point."

ATG is positioning itself as a finance-focused applied AI research lab. Their first product, the Autonomous app, differentiates itself from competitors by focusing on implementation rather than just stock picking. Erb clarified, "We're not saying that we have an AI that's going to pick all the best stocks for you."

Instead, the app helps users implement strategies used by the ultrawealthy. Key features include:

• Managing individual stocks instead of standard index funds to lower taxes
• Automatically adjusting portfolios to manage risk
• Providing proactive portfolio monitoring using real-time market data

The company monetizes through a separate product called Autonomous Index. This account allows users to execute trades with manual approval and helps build portfolios of individual stocks for tax savings and personalization. While the advice is free, execution happens within this paid ecosystem.

ATG enters a competitive landscape populated by startups like Stash, Vise, and Range, all of which apply AI to wealth management. Additionally, major banks are increasingly adopting AI technologies to transform the finance sector. ATG aims to stand out by offering a level of personalization that traditional services lack.

Currently, the company has 15 employees split between New York and San Francisco. The new capital will be used to hire more product engineers and AI researchers. The Autonomous app is scheduled to launch this quarter and will be available for free to early users.

Daniel Kobran outlined an ambitious long-term vision for the company. ATG aims to establish an AI-powered financial institution that automates services typically performed by human advisors. Future capabilities could include coordinating a user's entire financial picture, covering assets such as retirement accounts, cryptocurrency, and startup equity. Eventually, the platform hopes to handle complex tasks like angel investments and estate planning. Kobran summarized the goal: "I want the app to make everything a family office does for a billionaire accessible to everyone."