Fintechs have been the apple of the eye of the Indian startup ecosystem over the past year, as both established and young fintechs have expanded and gobbled up capital from domestic and international investors in 2021 and early 2022. This has accelerated the growth of the Indian fintech market, which is among the fastest-growing in the world, and is expected to reach nearly $150 billion by FY25.
Jar is a name that is fairly new to the market, and now, the fintech app raised $32 million in its Series A financing round. The round was led by Tiger Global, which has invested in several Indian startups since 2021. It also included participation from Rocketship.vc, Third Prime, Stonks, Force Ventures, and existing investors including Arkam Ventures and WEH. Angel investors like Klarna founder Victor Jacobsson, Suleman Ali of Ali Capital, Shamir Karkal of Sila Money, Byron Ling of Cannan Partners, and Joel John of Ledger Prime also participated in the round.
Post the round, the Bengaluru-based jar is valued at over $200 million. The proceeds from the round will be deployed towards expanding its user base and offering services like lending and insurance to users. Funds will also be used to focus on improving distribution and cultivating a savings habit among users through gamification. It also plans to make investments in educating first-time investors about overall financial literacy, something that is needed in a country like India.
Jar will also roll out two new financial products this year.
Founded by Misbah Ashraf and Nischay AG last May, the startup lets individuals invest spare change from daily online transactions into digital gold. Gold is something that is adored and desired by Indians and is generally held in high regard in the country. In fact, Indian households own nearly 22,500 tons of gold and has a value of nearly $1 trillion.
That should give you an idea of how valued gold is by Indians. The demand for gold across India was about 446.4 metric tons in 2020, and now, India’s favourite metal has gone digital. Considering that gold is one of the most preferred instruments of investment, Jar’s efforts to aid individuals invest in online gold is a step in the right direction (especially since most Indians do not venture much into investments).
Every time you conduct online transactions, some money is set aside to invest in digital gold. The digital gold is then backed by physical gold of the same amount, and you can withdraw or liquidate it at your convenience.
Today, it has a registered user base of 4.7 million and clocks over 100 transactions per minute on its platform. It has seen a rise of 20% in investments from users on a month-on-month basis.
