Generative AI-backed advisor tool Powder
"When analysts and advisors saw that capability, they didn't want to do it anymore because that's not the work that they signed up for, the manual work. … Powder is meant to help advisors build better relationships," said Kanishk Parashar, CEO of the Los Altos, California-based Powder. "So it got good adoption off the bat."
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Now, Powder has launched an AI-powered chatbot, adding listening capabilities so that advisors can ask questions and get customized responses in seconds — and the data is controlled within the advisory firm, not shared across parties.
"We're hanging the keys, but we're doing it in a way that advisors have the maximum learning, maximum accuracy," Parashar said.
Powder's chatbot launch coincided with a $5 million capital raise announced on July 23 partly to help the firm expand AI developments. The funding was backed by a syndicate of 40 Silicon Valley investors including Y Combinator, General Catalyst, FundersClub, Elefund, Litquidity Ventures and Script Capital.
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Name: Powder
Website: www.powderfi.com
Size of Powder: More than 20 firms have onboarded since Powder launched in mid-2023, according to Parashar.
Products and services offered: Powder's core product is a generative AI-backed software that can read lengthy and complex documents in seconds and provide analysis specific to what the user is seeking. The new AI chatbot is an added feature to the platform.
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Who Powder aims to serve: Advisors and analysts in the wealth management space, typically with small and midsize firms.
What kind of problems Powder is trying to solve: Powder was initially created to help advisors scan and interpret client documents such as broker statements or estate documents. The AI-powered tool can read hundreds of pages and extract key elements for an advisor to analyze or use in client meetings.
Since then, the company has continued to develop AI-tools, including the chatbot it launched this week that allows the advisor to ask questions and engage in discussions on client documents.
"We use chatbots to do coding, and we move faster as a startup" because of that, Parashar said. "We see parallels to that that could be applied to this [advisor] industry because the benefits are undeniable."
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How Powder is different from competitor vendors: There is a vast and growing number of AI-backed wealthtech firms specifically targeting ways to reduce workflow tasks for advisors because it is a huge industry pain point. A March survey of more than 540 advisors performed by Orion found that nearly half of respondents (45%) felt technology could save them the most time in operations and administrative tasks.
While there are many AI-tools specifically built to read and analyze documents for advisors, Parashar said they strive to make their platform feel more seamless to the user, such as hiding certain prompts so advisors can get more quickly to the answer, and through user-friendly visuals.
"Everything's behind the scenes so the person using it is just uploading documents, getting tracks and outputs that are enriched and cleansed, and they're good to go," he said. "We want to just give help. We don't want to add, 'Hey, you have to learn something to use our system.'"
What it costs: Pricing for the AI document reader starts at $500 per month, per seat, according to
What's next: Because Powder is still in the startup stage, Parashar said its next step is further developing its generative AI tool so it's more comprehensive in its ability to read a blurry PDF or hand-written note, for example, and becoming more useful to advisors so it earns their trust as an AI tool. He compared it to how it took years for Tesla Autopilot to develop from simple steps, like changing lanes, to having full self-driving capabilities.
"That's our approach. We want to be really good and make it really trustable, use-case by use-case. And over time, it'll become a total assistant" to the human advisor, he said.
