Aqua Raises $18.8M Series A to Build AI-Native Alternative Investments Platform

New York-based fintech Aqua has raised $18.8 million in Series A funding to expand its AI-native platform for alternative investments and modernise the infrastructure used by wealth managers, advisors and asset managers.

The financing includes a $15 million Series A led by Arthur Ventures, with participation from Alumni Ventures, alongside the company's previously raised $3.8 million seed round backed by Google's AI Fund and Y Combinator.

Aqua plans to use the new capital to accelerate platform and business development, expand its engineering and partnership teams, and deepen integrations with custodians and fund sponsors.

An AI-native operating system for alternative investments

Aqua describes its platform as a turnkey solution for the alternative investment lifecycle.

Instead of requiring wealth firms to use multiple systems for different stages of the process, Aqua brings fund creation, operational workflows, investment lifecycle management, marketplace access, document intelligence and investor servicing into a single environment.

The platform supports off-the-shelf private market funds as well as more customised structures, including special purpose vehicles, registered funds, fund-of-funds and feeder funds.

AI agents are used to automate some of the repetitive operational tasks involved in alternative investments, with the company continuing to evaluate additional areas where automation can reduce manual work.

Building around how firms actually operate

Aqua's strategy is to make the platform configurable around the workflows of individual firms rather than forcing businesses to redesign their operations around a fixed software system.

According to co-founder and CEO Rohan Marwaha, the company is effectively embedding its technology into white-label environments so firms can customise the platform for their own use cases.

That approach could be particularly relevant for wealth management firms and asset managers dealing with increasingly complex private-market products while trying to maintain consistent operational and compliance processes.

Growing adoption across wealth and asset management

Aqua currently works with approximately 8,000 advisory professionals and has customers across both wealth management and asset management.

Its advisory customers include DAI Securities, Arkadios Capital, Concorde Investment Services and Independent Financial Group.

On the asset management side, customers include LaSalle Investment Management, Cantor Fitzgerald and The Inland Real Estate Group of Companies.

The company has also expanded from an initial six-person team to around two dozen employees and plans to continue hiring as it brings additional advisors and fund managers onto the platform.

Entering a crowded alternatives technology market

Aqua is entering an increasingly competitive market.

Established alternative investment platforms such as iCapital and CAIS already serve thousands of wealth firms, while companies including SUBSCRIBE, Canoe, Gridline, Allocate, Alto, Arch, Opto, GLAS Funds, Altigo/SEI and Apex Alts are targeting different parts of the alternative investment lifecycle.

Traditional wealth technology providers such as Envestnet, InvestCloud, Orion, Addepar and Black Diamond are also expanding their private-market capabilities.

Aqua's differentiation is its attempt to combine the investment lifecycle with configurable infrastructure and AI agents inside a single platform.

Funding the next stage of growth

The latest funding gives Aqua additional resources to expand its technology and partnerships while strengthening integrations across custodians and fund sponsors.

With alternative investments becoming increasingly important within wealth management and asset allocation, Aqua is betting that AI-powered infrastructure can make private-market investing more accessible, operationally efficient and scalable for advisory firms and asset managers.