3 Startups · $17.6M+ · AI Investment + IRL Social + RCS Gaming

What they're building

Astor is an AI investment advisor that gives retail investors the same kind of real-time market tracking, deep research, and personalized alerts that institutional investors rely on. Their AI agents uncover opportunities, decode emerging trends, and deliver tailored analysis, basically a personal Goldman Sachs research desk for everyday investors. The product (available at joinastor.com) lets you call or chat with your AI advisor anytime, 24/7. It's a voice + chat interface, not just another stock screener or charting tool. Note: Astor was previously called "Gaus" (joingaus.com still redirects to the product), they recently rebranded, which is itself a signal of market positioning refinement and upcoming growth push.

Why this matters

Retail investors now account for 25% of all U.S. trading volume, nearly double from 2012. But 56% still don't feel confident in their investment decisions. There are 160M+ stock-owning Americans, and the tools they use (brokerages, news sites, Reddit) haven't fundamentally changed in 15 years. The AI advisor category is heating up, but Astor has an unusual founder combination: one founder was a data scientist at Nubank (building ML models for millions of users) and a fintech VC at monashees (Brazil's top VC, $2B+ AUM), while the other was an engineer at Stripe, Robinhood, and Amazon building production AI systems. They've seen the institutional edge from the inside and the retail struggle from the user side.