Aeries Financial Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs fintech startup CASHe, has forayed into the wealth management space with the acquisition of Gurgaon-based wealthtech platform Sqrrl in an all-cash deal.
In January, CASHe raised Rs 140 crore (around $18.7 million) of equity funding from its Singapore-based holding company TSLC Pte Ltd. Notably, this deal will be primarily funded from its surplus capital, the startup said in a statement on Tuesday.
Launched in 2017, Sqrrl is a mobile-first wealth management platform focused on millennials and Gen Zs providing them with unique offerings to invest and grow their earnings.
It provides five different investment options namely, mutual fund investing (SIP/Lumpsum), goal-based investment, Axe Tax (tax saving plans) Sqrrl Away (round-up investing or micro-investing) and fixed deposit.
The platform claims to serve over five lakh users across 20,000 pin codes from more than 600 cities, with over 55% of its users coming from the top 30 cities in India.
“We are delighted to join CASHe – a company that brings enormous experience and passion in empowering the GenZ and millennials to achieve their financial ambitions. This move will help the business scale up further by offering Sqrrl’s investment products to CASHe’s massive customer base with just a few clicks," said Samant Sikka, Co-Founder, Sqrrl.
Founded in 2016 by V. Raman Kumar, CASHe is a personal loan app and digital lending platform targeting millennials and Gen Z in India.
Besides personal loans, it provides ‘buy now, pay later’ products to salaried individuals through an app and a proprietary underwriting algorithm based on alternate data.
Since its launch, CASHe said it has registered over 20 million app downloads on the app store and has disbursed loans of over Rs 4,000 crores to over four lakh customers.
“The acquisition of Sqrrl is an important milestone for CASHe’s vision 3.0 roadmap as it sets the stage for the next phase of our growth through our foray into the wealthtech space.
By integrating CASHe’s millennial-focused credit-led services with the digital-first wealth and investment management offerings of Sqrrl, we aim to seamlessly fulfill the diverse credit and investment needs of the new-age Indian by offering multi-product access and next-gen financial wellness solutions," said Kumar.
This acquisition will aid in extending our reach to the next billion young Indians by offering them an all-new byte-sized investing ecosystem covering a much larger geographical footprint," he added.
Last year, CASHe received undisclosed growth capital from venture debt firm BlackSoil Capital.
In 2017, CASHe had raised Rs 20 crore (around $3 million) in debt funding from IFMR Capital. It also raised Rs 25 crore ($3.8 million) in Series A funding led by Mathew Cyriac, former India co-head of private equity at Blackstone Group LP, in the same year.
