Seven months ago, a fintech app helping millions of Indians start their investment and savings journey caught the eye of Tiger Global.
Bangalore-based Jar said Thursday that he has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round, just months after receiving seed funding.
New York-based investors include Rocketship.vc, Stonks, Force Ventures, Arkam Ventures, Klarna founder Viktor Jacobsson, Ali Capital’s Suleman Ali, Sila’s Shamir Karkal Money, Byron ling and dozens more. is leading a new round with Joel John of Canaan Partners and Joel John of Leisure Prime.
The round valued Jar at over $200 million, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Jar co-founder declined to comment on the valuation.
Today about 1 billion Indians have bank accounts but have never invested. According to Jar co-founder and CEO Beggar Ag, one of the reasons is confusion. “Your world is littered with various financial product announcements,” he told TechCrunch.
For decades, banks and mutual funds have tried to get the Indian public interested in their products. Even though they invested hundreds of millions of dollars to conquer the market, they managed to attract less than 30 million people.
“Producing a product is one thing, but selling it is quite another. All of these facilities are good at producing. You have to match the load, and the cultural significance, which is an art and a science in itself,” he said.
Jah solves this problem by choosing gold, a financial instrument familiar to most Indians. For more than a century, Indians have hidden gold in their homes, he said, and see the yellow metal as a good investment and a status symbol.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Indian owns $1.5 trillion worth of precious metals. For generations, Indians across the socioeconomic spectrum have chosen to keep their savings, or at least part of it, in the form of gold. In fact, the demand for gold in India is so high (Indians have more gold than citizens of any other country) that the South Asian country is one of the world’s largest importers of precious metals. I have.
Jar, which raised $4.5 million last year from various investors including Tribe Capital and Arkam Ventures, is launching an app of the same name that makes it very easy for users to get started investing.
The app earns a small amount every time a user makes a transaction. Round up your daily personal expenses and set aside some money for investment. Users’ investment in digital gold is backed by an equal amount of physical gold, and they can withdraw that amount or liquidate their investment at any time, Misbah Ashraf, co-founder and product director of Jar, said in an interview.
The rates are working. According to Beggar, the app has attracted more than 4 million users, 99% of whom are first-time investors in any asset class.
A few years ago, the duo sought to explore startup synergies when Miesbach’s former company MarsPlay (which was later acquired) and Bounce, where Nishchai was head of engineering, procurement and business. Sometimes we connect for the first time. They stayed in touch and during numerous conversations at the end of 2020 realized that neither of them knew much about investing.
This acted as a catalyst for Miesbach, who saw his family struggle with debt. “We were both tech-savvy and in business, but we didn’t think much about saving or investing,” he said. “We started to wonder if it was just us or if it was a systemic problem for everyone. Especially the last one,” he said.
Jha aims to develop financial habits among people to start his investment journey. Now that it has reached consumers in every state in India, the startup is aiming to offer more financial products that users can invest in, Beggar said.
“Habits and discipline are clearly taking shape and we’re seeing a 20% increase in our users’ monthly spending,” he said.
The startup also plans to lend and insure users in the coming months, he said.
Tiger Global partner Alex Cook said in a statement: “We stand in solidarity with Jar’s mission to help users develop daily savings habits and are excited to partner with their growing team of millions of customers.”
Seven months ago, a fintech app helping millions of Indians start their investment and savings journey caught the eye of Tiger Global.
Bangalore-based Jar said Thursday that he has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round, just months after receiving seed funding.
New York-based investors include Rocketship.vc, Stonks, Force Ventures, Arkam Ventures, Klarna founder Viktor Jacobsson, Ali Capital’s Suleman Ali, Sila’s Shamir Karkal Money, Byron ling and dozens more. is leading a new round with Joel John of Canaan Partners and Joel John of Leisure Prime.
The round valued Jar at over $200 million, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Jar co-founder declined to comment on the valuation.
Today about 1 billion Indians have bank accounts but have never invested. According to Jar co-founder and CEO Beggar Ag, one of the reasons is confusion. “Your world is littered with various financial product announcements,” he told TechCrunch.
For decades, banks and mutual funds have tried to get the Indian public interested in their products. Even though they invested hundreds of millions of dollars to conquer the market, they managed to attract less than 30 million people.
“Producing a product is one thing, but selling it is quite another. All of these facilities are good at producing. You have to match the load, and the cultural significance, which is an art and a science in itself,” he said.
Jah solves this problem by choosing gold, a financial instrument familiar to most Indians. For more than a century, Indians have hidden gold in their homes, he said, and see the yellow metal as a good investment and a status symbol.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Indian owns $1.5 trillion worth of precious metals. For generations, Indians across the socioeconomic spectrum have chosen to keep their savings, or at least part of it, in the form of gold. In fact, the demand for gold in India is so high (Indians have more gold than citizens of any other country) that the South Asian country is one of the world’s largest importers of precious metals. I have.
Jar, which raised $4.5 million last year from various investors including Tribe Capital and Arkam Ventures, is launching an app of the same name that makes it very easy for users to get started investing.
The app earns a small amount every time a user makes a transaction. Round up your daily personal expenses and set aside some money for investment. Users’ investment in digital gold is backed by an equal amount of physical gold, and they can withdraw that amount or liquidate their investment at any time, Misbah Ashraf, co-founder and product director of Jar, said in an interview.
The rates are working. According to Beggar, the app has attracted more than 4 million users, 99% of whom are first-time investors in any asset class.
A few years ago, the duo sought to explore startup synergies when Miesbach’s former company MarsPlay (which was later acquired) and Bounce, where Nishchai was head of engineering, procurement and business. Sometimes we connect for the first time. They stayed in touch and during numerous conversations at the end of 2020 realized that neither of them knew much about investing.
This acted as a catalyst for Miesbach, who saw his family struggle with debt. “We were both tech-savvy and in business, but we didn’t think much about saving or investing,” he said. “We started to wonder if it was just us or if it was a systemic problem for everyone. Especially the last one,” he said.
Jha aims to develop financial habits among people to start his investment journey. Now that it has reached consumers in every state in India, the startup is aiming to offer more financial products that users can invest in, Beggar said.
“Habits and discipline are clearly taking shape and we’re seeing a 20% increase in our users’ monthly spending,” he said.
The startup also plans to lend and insure users in the coming months, he said.
Tiger Global partner Alex Cook said in a statement: “We stand in solidarity with Jar’s mission to help users develop daily savings habits and are excited to partner with their growing team of millions of customers.”
