Ritik Malhotra

WealthManagement.com’s “The Ten to Watch in 2024” profile states that he is the son of Indian immigrants: his father, who worked in the emerging Silicon Valley, bought a computer in the 1990s—an expensive purchase for a family living in a one-bedroom apartment—in the hope that it would help his own work and introduce his son to a possible career, so that he had his first computer at age 5; his mother introduced him to the internet through a dial-up connection. He recalled: “I just fell in love with the fact that you could use this seemingly magic box.”⁠[1]

The profiles of the Thiel Fellows that VentureBeat and TechCrunchTechCrunchTechCrunch is an American technology news outlet founded in 2005 by Michael Arrington and Keith Teare and headquartered in San Francisco; it mainly covers technology companies, startups, and venture capital, and hosts events such as TechCrunch Disrupt. Its ownership passed successively through AOL, Verizon, and Yahoo, and in 2025 Regent announced its acquisition.Open the full entry published in June 2012 state that he began programming at age 8, started a popular web forum at 12 that grew to more than 32,000 members, and at 13 ran a web hosting and software consultancy business that returned more than 600 times his initial investment.⁠[2][3]

The WealthManagement.com profile, for its part, states that at age 11 he started a small business developing turnkey web applications, and that before he turned 19 he worked project-based engineering jobs with Intel and Twitter.⁠[1]

VentureFizz’s 2022 episode summary states that his path into entrepreneurship began in middle school, when he built a successful web development and hosting business.⁠[4]

In a 2024 GOBankingRates article he refers to “creating internet businesses in high school.”⁠[5]

Y Combinator’s company page lists Streem as founded in 2012, based in San Francisco and part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2012 batch, with a team of four; the founders it lists are Malhotra as founder and CEO, Tanooj Luthra as founder and CTO, and Samvit Ramadurgam.⁠[6]

VentureBeat’s 2014 article, by contrast, states that Streem was founded in 2013 by Malhotra and Tanooj Luthra and was part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2012 class.⁠[7]

Y Combinator’s page describes Streem as cloud storage for media: files live in the cloud rather than on the device, freeing local space while remaining instantly accessible, and media is converted on the fly for playback across devices and bandwidths. VentureBeat describes Streem’s own filesystem, StreemFS, which let users access and view files without downloading and storing local copies, along with on-the-fly video transcoding, automatic adjustment of streaming format and quality to the available connection speed during playback, and streaming and buffering algorithms that let files stored in the cloud open as fast as local ones.⁠[6][7]

TechCrunch wrote in 2014 that Streem had recently raised $875,000 to build out its product; the investors VentureBeat names are Grooveshark co-founder Andres Barreto and Ironfire Capital.⁠[8][7]

In the 2024 GOBankingRates article he recalls that his first company started as a cloud storage business and later pivoted to serve enterprise customers, and says: “The idea you start with is rarely the one you end with, and that’s OK.”⁠[5]

In the list of the 2012 class of the Thiel FellowshipThiel FellowshipThe Thiel Fellowship is a two-year grant program started by investor Peter Thiel and run by the Thiel Foundation that funds young people who skip or stop out of college to build new things instead. The program has been criticized by figures in education for encouraging young people to leave college.Open the full entry published on June 12, 2012, he is item 11, aged 19, from San Jose, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry; each of the 20 Fellows of the class received $100,000 over two years from Peter ThielPeter ThielPeter Thiel is an American entrepreneur and investor, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, and the first outside investor in Facebook. He is a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund and founded the Thiel Fellowship, which funds young people to leave college and build new things; his public skepticism of higher education, his support for Trump in 2016, and his funding of litigation against Gawker Media have drawn controversy.Open the full entry to forgo college and build a business instead.⁠[2][3]

His fellowship profile states that he wanted to provide a streamlined way of discovering, sharing and distributing content over Facebook, Twitter and other social media services; as a Thiel Fellow, he would first build a service that lets users share interesting media gathered from all around the web, focusing primarily on user growth in order to build a thriving community.⁠[2][3]

On June 16, 2014, BoxBoxBox is an American enterprise software company founded in 2005 by Aaron Levie, Dylan Smith and others, headquartered in Redwood City, California. It provides cloud content management, file sharing, collaboration, e-signature and AI content-processing tools, and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015 under the ticker BOX.Open the full entry announced that it had acquired Streem; Y Combinator’s page records that Streem was acquired by Box in June 2014. Box did not disclose the terms, saying only that it paid with a mix of cash and stock; Streem’s four team members joined Box, and its product was to be folded into Box’s larger offerings, a process that had already begun.⁠[8][6]

Box CEO Aaron LevieAaron LevieAaron Levie is an American enterprise software entrepreneur and angel investor, and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Box. He co-founded Box in 2005, led the company’s shift from an online file-sharing service to enterprise content management, and took the company public in 2015.Open the full entry wrote in a blog post that Streem “has developed enhanced video and media-streaming technology” so that content in the cloud loads as quickly as local content. TechCrunch’s article states that its writer Ron Miller saw the deal as filling a product gap, as Box had lagged behind Dropbox and Google Drive in giving users access to cloud files from their desktops.⁠[8]

The WealthManagement.com profile states that by the time he was old enough to drink legally he had launched his first full-scale technology start-up, and that in 2014 he sold his cloud-based data storage system to Box.⁠[1]

Elph was a company in Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 batch, based in San Francisco, with a team of five, building digital payments infrastructure; the founders listed on Y Combinator’s page are Vamsi Chitters, Tanooj Luthra, Ritik Malhotra and Sarat Ravi, with Malhotra as founder and CEO.⁠[9]

Brex’s press release announcing the acquisition describes Elph as a San Francisco start-up building digital payments infrastructure on blockchain technology, with tools that let developers accept cryptocurrency payments in their apps and let consumers store, manage and send cryptocurrency. The release states that five founding members—Ritik Malhotra (CEO), Tanooj Luthra (CTO), Vamsi Chitters, Sarat Ravi and Abhinav Lanka—were joining Brex to strengthen its product development roadmap; the team’s previous employers included CoinbaseCoinbaseCoinbase is a U.S. operator of crypto asset trading platforms, founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, whose listed parent is Coinbase Global, Inc.; it went public through a direct listing on Nasdaq (ticker COIN) in April 2021 and joined the S&P 500 in May 2025. It provides crypto trading, custody, staking, and stablecoin-related services, launched USDC with Circle, develops the Ethereum layer-2 network Base, and acquired the crypto options exchange Deribit in 2025; its venture investing operates as Coinbase Ventures.Open the full entry, GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry, Box and Yahoo, and Malhotra and Luthra had earlier founded Streem, which Box acquired in 2014.⁠[10]

Brex’s vice president of engineering, Cosmin Nicolaescu, says in the release that the team has an “entrepreneurial track record of building impactful products.” Malhotra said that Brex’s focus on revamping financial infrastructure “deeply resonates with us,” and called Brex the best place to apply the team’s experience during its period of rapid growth.⁠[10]

The founder profile on Savvy Wealth’s About page gives 2019 as the year of the Brex exit and states that he was later Director of Product Management at Brex, where he launched and built Brex Cash, the company’s second business line after its corporate card. The WealthManagement.com profile describes the company he sold to Brex as a blockchain-based financial ledger for multi-party digital transactions that became Brex Cash, while InvestmentNews calls Elph a digital ledger fintech company.⁠[11][1][12]

The GOBankingRates article states that by his mid-20s he had built and exited two technology companies and had more wealth than he knew how to manage, so he sought advice from traditional financial advisors; he recalls that after selling his second start-up he took a few months off “for the first time in years.”⁠[5]

In July 2021 he founded Savvy Wealth; the GOBankingRates article states that he was 29 when he founded it. Savvy Wealth’s website says the company was founded in 2021 and launched its affiliated registered investment adviser, Savvy Advisors, shortly afterward.⁠[13][5][11]

The WealthManagement.com profile states that while searching for a financial advisor after his sale to Box he “fell in love” with the advisory business but found its technology lackluster; he spoke with more than 100 advisors who shared the same concern, and finally said, “Let’s go build it.” The profile adds that he co-founded Savvy Wealth with its chief technology officer, Muller Zhang, to build an all-in-one wealth management platform for its affiliated registered investment advisory firm, Savvy Advisors.⁠[1]

In the GOBankingRates article he says: “Before starting Savvy Wealth, I spoke to over 100 financial advisors to deeply understand their pain points.”⁠[5]

In February 2022 Savvy announced a $7.3 million seed round co-led by Index VenturesIndex VenturesIndex Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in Geneva in 1996. It invests from seed through growth and operates across London, San Francisco and New York, supporting technology companies through a transatlantic network.Open the full entry and Thrive CapitalThrive CapitalThrive Capital is an investment firm led by chief executive Joshua Kushner that builds and invests in internet, software and technology-enabled companies, with investments including Cursor and Chai Discovery. Kushner is also chief executive of Thrive Holdings, a long-term holding company.Open the full entry, with participation from founders of Flexport, Opendoor, Newfront, Iconiq, PlaidPlaidPlaid is a financial technology company co-founded by Zach Perret and William Hockey and headquartered in San Francisco. It provides infrastructure connecting financial accounts with applications, with products spanning account verification, payments, lending and fraud prevention, and develops AI models for financial transactions. A planned acquisition by Visa was terminated in 2021.Open the full entry, Instacart and Figma, as well as Jordan Park, A* Capital, Operator Partners, GFC and others; the funds were to go toward acquiring wealth management firms, hiring wealth managers, growing product development and investing in research and development.⁠[14]

As CEO and co-founder of Savvy, he said the team had noticed that over the past decade, and especially since the onset of the pandemic, “the wealth management industry was not embracing technology as quickly as the general public was”; the company’s goal, he said, was to build a technology-powered wealth management firm that equips its wealth managers with advanced tools and services to advance their business, broaden their client base and spend more time with clients.⁠[14]

On April 11, 2022, the VentureFizz Podcast published episode 254, hosted by Keith Cline, with him as guest; the episode summary describes him as co-founder and CEO of Savvy and a serial entrepreneur whose last two companies were acquired by Box and Brex, and lists among the topics his experience as a Thiel Fellow, the value of a waitlist before launch, the acquisition process and advice on applying to Y Combinator.⁠[4]

On May 3, 2022, the research firm Sacra published Conor Gleeson’s interview with him, introducing him as CEO and co-founder of Savvy; in the interview he described Savvy’s team as made up of early engineers from Facebook, AirbnbAirbnbAirbnb is a travel platform for booking stays, experiences, and services, co-founded by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk and headquartered in San Francisco, United States; its Class A common stock trades on Nasdaq under the symbol ABNB. The business began with hosting guests in the founders’ home in 2007, then joined YC’s Winter 2009 batch, and gradually expanded into local experiences, services, and boutique hotels.Open the full entry, Brex and other companies.⁠[15]

On December 18, 2023, WealthManagement.com published a profile by Ali Hibbs that included him in its “The Ten to Watch in 2024” series, giving his age as 31. In it he describes Savvy Advisors as a decentralized, AI-enabled technology platform with three main components: fully digital client onboarding and account opening; an integrated advisor dashboard with customer relationship management, financial planning and investment tools, including proprietary direct indexing capabilities; and a digital client portal for viewing and managing portfolios, tracking performance, communicating with advisors, scheduling meetings and managing files. The profile adds that Savvy’s backers include people who have worked or still work at Venmo, UberUberUber is a technology company headquartered in San Francisco, United States, whose legal name is Uber Technologies, Inc. Co-founded by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick, it uses digital platforms to connect riders with drivers, delivery consumers with merchants, and shippers with carriers, with main businesses in Mobility, Delivery, and Freight. Dara Khosrowshahi has been chief executive officer since 2017.Open the full entry, Opendoor, PayPalPayPalPayPal Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: PYPL) is an American digital payments company that operates payment brands including PayPal, Venmo, Braintree, and Xoom, providing online and in-store payments, money transfers, and consumer credit to consumers and merchants worldwide.Open the full entry, Brex and other technology companies outside wealth management.⁠[1]

On August 5, 2024, writing on the company’s website as founder and CEO, he announced that Savvy Wealth had closed a $15.5 million Series A-2 round, bringing the Series A led by Canvas Ventures to $26.5 million and the company’s total funding to more than $33 million; the post states that Savvy had started three years earlier and that more than 30 advisors on the platform then managed over $700 million in client assets, with $1 billion as the next goal.⁠[16]

He wrote in the post: “I’m more confident than ever that this is only the beginning.”⁠[16]

WealthManagement.com wrote in 2025 that before the Series A, Savvy had completed an $11 million Series A-1 round in mid-2022.⁠[13]

On December 4, 2024, GOBankingRates published “I Built 3 Startups Before 30: Here’s What I Learned,” written by Gabrielle Olya, setting out his lessons as a founder. He says that “the quality of your team matters more than anything else,” and speaks of the philosophy he saw firsthand at Y Combinator, where investors back people before ideas. The article states that Savvy Wealth had by then raised more than $33 million.⁠[5]

In July 2025 Savvy Wealth closed a $72 million Series B led by Industry Ventures, with new investors Vestigo Ventures and Euclidean Capital taking part, and Mark Casady, the former LPL Financial CEO who runs Vestigo Ventures, joined its board; the company’s total funding exceeded $100 million, and client assets managed by Savvy Advisors had grown to $2.2 billion.⁠[13][17]

On September 9, 2026, Savvy Wealth announced a $100 million Series C led by Halo Fund, a growth-stage venture firm run by Qualtrics founder Ryan Smith and Accel general partner Ryan Sweeney, at a valuation of $600 million—6.6 times its level of 15 months earlier—bringing total funding to more than $200 million; it then managed $9 billion, and its advisor force had grown to 150, double the year before. InvestmentNews put the number of advisors at more than 150 and wrote that the company was on pace to exceed $100 million in annual recurring revenue that year and planned to grow from more than 100 employees to hundreds.⁠[17][12]

He said the reason for raising at that point was “the quality of investors who wanted to put money in and the amount of conviction they had,” adding: “We are only limited by how much we are willing to invest into the growth of the platform.”⁠[17]

In the InvestmentNews article he says the company has “started to build specific custom AI agents,” and describes expanding tax and estate services as a way to become a “virtual family office” that advisors can use without building one themselves.⁠[12]

As of November 2026, Savvy Wealth’s website lists him as founder and CEO; the company is headquartered in New York City, and its leadership team also includes chief operating officer Amir Har-El, chief investment officer Anshul Sharma and chief technology officer Eric Hurkman, among others.⁠[11]

The founder profile on the company’s About page describes him as a repeat technical founder with two exits and an alumnus of Y Combinator and the Thiel Fellowship, and states that at Savvy he has led the development of AI-driven technology that eases advisors’ daily work and reduces friction in client engagement.⁠[11]

The founder profile on Savvy Wealth’s About page states that he holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) is a campus of the University of California system; the University of California was founded in 1868 through a merger of two institutions and moved to Berkeley, California, in 1873.Open the full entry.⁠[11]

Savvy Wealth: Official website: https://www.savvywealth.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]

Thiel Fellowship: Official website: https://thielfellowship.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[18]

Y Combinator: Official website: https://www.ycombinator.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

Box: Official website: https://www.box.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[19]

Brex: Official website: https://www.brex.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritikmalhotra/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]