India-based Fincash.com has closed a INR 1 Crore ($150,000) funding round from a group of angel investors, as the company looks to expand to 500 cities by the end of the year, Fincash.com CEO Gaurav Perti told FinTech Global.
Since its launch in 2016, the company has raised $250,000, from angels including Rediffusion founder Mohammed Khan, and BNP Paribas ex-fund manager Sameer Narayan, among others.
Fincash is a wealth management platform that enables consumers to improve their savings and build an investment portfolio. The company offers three products, SmartSIP, SavingsPlus and TaxSaver. The SmartSIP service provides three pre-selected funds to back, while the SavingsPlus solution lets the consumer make automatic savings investments.
TaxSaver helps users save on taxes by investing in two preselected equity-linked savings schemes. If preferred, the consumer is able to invest by themselves and build their own portfolio.
Fincash is currently used in 150 cities across India, and hopes to expand its reach to 200 within the next three months. By the end of the year, the company hopes to reach 500, with a focus on tier 2 and 3 cities, Perti said.
“Being a small player with a low-vintage, building-in brand and trust has its own challenges. We focus more on building trust by giving quality solutions and we make sure that we serve the best solutions to our users.”
Equity from the round will be used to expand its product’s solutions, grow its customer base and widen its reach across the country. The company is hoping to expand offerings for its SmartSIP, SavingsPlus and TaxSaver, to help consumers make better and wider choices for investments.
Fincash.com CEO Gaurav Perti said, “It is important to make a first-time investor comfortable with mutual funds. Once they gain confidence with short-term plans like liquid funds, we introduce them to equity funds via a SIP. Addressing customers risk-appetite and giving them better solutions, I think, is a great way to encourage their investment journey.”
Earlier in the week, India-based Happay reportedly bagged a $250k investment from Cupola Venture Opportunities. The company is an expense management solution that helps businesses to manage expenses and prepaid cards.
India’s FinTech sector
The FinTech sector in India saw a massive rise in funding last year, with $5.5bn more capital being invested in the country, than in 2016. Payments & remittances and marketplace lending companies represent the most funded sectors, accounting for a total of 57 per cent of total capital deployed.
Perti said, “In the last couple of years, we have seen a massive growth, around payments, lending and wealth management. We see stand-alone companies as well as B2B enterprise solutions, making sure that customers pain-points are solved. This sector has seen a massive growth, interest. We expect it to grow even further.”
One of the key trends that Perti is noticing in the country at the moment is a shift to the wider acceptance of B2B solutions and their uses. He added, “Where technology is integrated with large financial institutions to solve customer pain-points, making the customer journey easier, faster and more efficient. Also, for example, in lending additional segments have got open up with innovative credit scoring techniques using social media, etc., which were not available using the traditional technique.”
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