ETtechJar, a six-month-old savings platform that lets users invest in gold, has raised $4.5 million led by Arkam Ventures in its first institutional funding. Silicon Valley-based early-stage fund Tribe Capital and WEH Ventures have also joined the round as new investors besides angel investors like Cred founder Kunal Shah, former Uber CPO Manik Gupta, Shaan Puri, formerly with Twitch, and others.
The Bengaluru-based startup, which launched its product three months ago, has garnered 500,000 users and is growing at around 350% month-on-month, its cofounder and CEO Nischay AG said. While the company currently is focusing on investments through digital gold, it plans to launch other savings products too. Nischay, who was with mobility startup Bounce earlier, has started Jar with Misbah Ashraf, who had previously started community-led commerce platform Marsplay and later sold it to Foxy earlier this year.
“Currently, we are focusing on growth and increasing our user base. Once we have a large user base, we want to do a deeper analysis of user behaviour and slowly bring in other instruments to the platform,” said Nischay.
The company also plans to hire and strengthen its team across functions like engineering, data science and marketing, Ashraf added.
“Jar’s vision resonates with our thesis on how millennials’ need for financial well being can be met through extraordinary product innovation. We are impressed by Jar’s ability to drive user behaviour at scale in the very attractive market of financial planning and investing,” said Rahul Chandra, managing director at Arkam Ventures.
The Bengaluru-based startup, which launched its product three months ago, has garnered 500,000 users and is growing at around 350% month-on-month, its cofounder and CEO Nischay AG said. While the company currently is focusing on investments through digital gold, it plans to launch other savings products too. Nischay, who was with mobility startup Bounce earlier, has started Jar with Misbah Ashraf, who had previously started community-led commerce platform Marsplay and later sold it to Foxy earlier this year.
Users investing in gold through its platform can at any point in time withdraw the cash equivalent of their investment or get the gold delivered to their homes.
“Currently, we are focusing on growth and increasing our user base. Once we have a large user base, we want to do a deeper analysis of user behaviour and slowly bring in other instruments to the platform,” said Nischay.
The company also plans to hire and strengthen its team across functions like engineering, data science and marketing, Ashraf added.
“Jar’s vision resonates with our thesis on how millennials’ need for financial well being can be met through extraordinary product innovation. We are impressed by Jar’s ability to drive user behaviour at scale in the very attractive market of financial planning and investing,” said Rahul Chandra, managing director at Arkam Ventures.
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