With a total capital infusion of Rs 17 crore, investments from Global Technology Ventures and BPL Innovision, Way2Wealth is positioned as a one-stop-shop to offer personalised financial products for retail investors. The company is looking at integrating both a strong offline and online presence.

The products that will be offered by the company include equities, public offerings, debentures, mutual funds, derivatives, insurance products, etc and close to 50 outlets offering personalised services for the investors across the country is expected to go onstream by March 2001. Close to Rs 12 crore is being invested towards creating a network of 100 outlets which will be operational by end-2001.

Speaking at the briefing, chairman Way2Wealth Securities and managing partner Global Technology Ventures VG Siddhartha said the market for insurance products was set to see exponential growth. The insurance premium market itself was estimated to be about Rs 85,000 crore, while the commission market on the insurance products was likely to be in the range of Rs 25,000 crore.

The mutual fund market was also another steady growth segment, Mr Siddhartha added. "Coupled with our services, we are looking at leveraging technology extensively to offer state-of-the-art services to our customers. The company expects to break even in a year and is looking at offering a limited number but the best quality products to our investors," said the company's CEO KR Mohan. According to Way2Wealth director and partner Global Technology Ventures Kishore Moorjani, while online trading and online brokerage had changed the landscape of the burgeoning retail investment market, the need for personalised face-to-face services was still a strong need.