According to Business Insider, serial entrepreneurs and two-time Y Combinator graduates Dillon Erb and Daniel Kobran announced on Wednesday that they’ve raised a $15 million pre-seed round for their new venture, Autonomous Technologies Group (ATG). The funding was led by YC CEO Garry Tan through a dedicated alumni vehicle, with participation from BoxGroup and Collaborative Fund. The pair sold their previous startup, Paperspace, to DigitalOcean for $111 million in 2023, and the idea for ATG came from organizing their own finances post-exit. Their first product is an app called Autonomous, a free AI-powered wealth strategist launching this quarter. The company, with 15 employees in New York and San Francisco, will use the capital to hire more product engineers and AI researchers.
The AI Family Office Play
Here’s the thing: this isn’t just another robo-advisor telling you to buy a low-cost ETF. The angle is fascinating. They’re explicitly targeting the “family office” strategies of the ultrawealthy—think managing individual stocks for precise tax-loss harvesting, not just dumping money into a generic index fund. Kobran’s quote says it all: he wants to make “everything a family office does for a billionaire accessible to everyone.” That’s a powerful, if incredibly ambitious, vision. It goes beyond simple portfolio allocation into coordinating crypto, startup equity, and even future services like estate planning. But can an app truly replicate the deeply personal, high-touch service of a human family office? That’s the billion-dollar question they’re betting on.
Battleground: Wealth Management
So who should be worried? Traditional wealth managers charging 1% for what’s often generic advice are the obvious target. But this also heats up competition for robo-advisors like Betterment and Wealthfront, which automated the basics but haven’t deeply personalized at the individual stock level. And let’s not forget the big banks—the article mentions they’re all rushing to embrace AI, too. The battleground is shifting from mere automation to hyper-personalized, context-aware strategy. Autonomous’s free-advice model with a paid execution layer (the Autonomous Index account) is a clever wedge. It gets people in the door without the friction of moving assets, which has always been the hardest part for any new fintech.
The Massive Ifs
Look, the pedigree and funding are impressive. A $15M pre-seed is huge, and having Garry Tan lead it is a major endorsement. But the challenges are monumental. Financial advice is a minefield of regulation and liability. “Personalized” AI guidance on things like job offers or home purchases is incredibly complex and fraught with potential error. And then there’s the behavioral side of finance—will people actually follow an AI’s proactive nudges? The promise is a fully automated, holistic financial institution. The reality, at least for the foreseeable future, will likely be a powerful but narrow assistant for tax-aware investing. Still, if anyone has the capital and credibility to push the envelope, it’s these founders. They’ve built and sold a company before. Now they’re aiming for something even bigger.
