Sherpas raises $3.2M seed to build AI-native operating layer for wealth management firms

The startup aims to standardize financial advice analysis and delivery to help advisory firms provide consistent, explainable recommendations faster.

Published on Feb. 23, 2026

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Sherpas, a wealth management startup based in Wilmington, Delaware, has raised a $3.2 million seed round led by 1248, the family office of Mariner Wealth Advisors founder Marty Bicknell. The company is building an AI-native infrastructure platform to automate much of the analytical work behind financial advice, allowing advisors to spend more time on strategy and client relationships.

Why it matters

Advisory firms are facing rising client expectations, growing planning demands, and increasing pressure to produce recommendations faster and with greater consistency. Sherpas aims to help these firms modernize their operating layer and deliver advice with more speed and standardization using AI-powered automation.

The details

Sherpas' platform standardizes the analytical foundation for financial plans and investment proposals, aiming to deliver consistent, explainable outputs across client portfolios. The company reports that its system can produce recommendations in minutes rather than days. Sherpas is building a feedback loop between its analytical engine and advisor behavior, allowing the platform to refine how recommendations are structured and applied over time.

  • Sherpas was founded in 2022.
  • The company closed its $3.2 million seed round on February 23, 2026.

The players

Sherpas

An AI-native infrastructure platform for wealth management firms, founded in 2022 and based in Wilmington, Delaware.

Marty Bicknell

The founder and CEO of Mariner Wealth Advisors, whose family office 1248 led Sherpas' $3.2 million seed round.

Borja Edo

The co-founder and CEO of Sherpas.

Steve Lockshin

The founder of Vanilla and AdvicePeriod, who has joined Sherpas' board of directors.

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What they’re saying

“Financial advice today is still heavily dependent on time and manual analysis. That creates variability that firms don't always see and can't scale. Sherpas was built to standardize the analytical foundation of advice, delivering consistent, explainable recommendations in minutes rather than days. The goal isn't to replace advisors. It's to remove mechanical work so human judgment can operate at its highest level.”

— Borja Edo, Co-Founder and CEO of Sherpas (techstartups.com)

“Advisory firms are at an inflection point. The next decade won't be defined by incremental technology upgrades, but by whether firms modernize their operating layer. Sherpas isn't adding another tool to the stack; it's building infrastructure that enables advice to be delivered with greater consistency, speed, and scale. That distinction matters.”

— Steve Lockshin, Founder of Vanilla and AdvicePeriod (techstartups.com)

What’s next

Sherpas plans to use the new capital to fund deeper development across retirement, tax, investment, and risk-planning frameworks. The company also aims to expand integrations with enterprise systems commonly used by advisory firms and accelerate deployments across practices that want to modernize without adding headcount.

The takeaway

Sherpas' AI-native infrastructure platform represents a shift in how wealth management firms can deliver financial advice, moving away from manual analysis and fragmented tools towards more standardized, consistent, and scalable recommendations. By automating the mechanical work, the company aims to free up advisors to focus on higher-level strategy and client relationships.