Savings investment app Gullak, founded by former executives of payment technology platform JusPay, on Thursday said it has raised seed funding of $3 million (around Rs 24.4 crore) co-led by Y Combinator and Better Capital.
The round also saw participation from Rebel Partners, Goodwater Capital, GMO fintech fund and TRTL ventures, with angel investors including Kunal Shah (Cred) as well as Akshay Mehrotra and Ashish Goyal (Early Salary), among others.
The Bengaluru-based startup, operated by Finternet Technologies Pvt Ltd, plans to deploy the fresh proceeds for product development and expansion.
Founded by Manthan Shah, Dilip Jain and Naimisha Rao last year, Gullak automates savings. The app helps users to save small amounts on a regular basis and automatically invest that in digital gold. The startup claims to have grown its gross transaction value from 2 to 22 lakh daily and aims to hit one crore GTV by August this year.
“We are driven by our vision to democratise wealth creation while working on all the three pillars of a sustainable business - acquisition, retention and monetization - at the same time. For instance, our recent offering Gullak Gold+ has allowed us to move to a 4-digit average revenue per unit and are hoping to see retention numbers as well through this offering,” said Shah.
This is Gullak’s second capital raise within a year. In June last year, the platform had raised $1.3 million as part of its pre-seed funding round from Better Capital, Stellaris Ventures and other angel investors.
The fintech sector, which was one of the top-funded sectors in 2022, amid a funding winter continues to see similar activity this year as well.
Within the fintech ecosystem, a couple of savings-based startups have also raised early-stage funding in January.
On Tuesday, savings app SayF raised $240,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Titan Capital, Sunn91 Ventures, and other angel investors.
Earlier, gamified savings platform Fello raised $4 million in its latest funding round led by US-based Courtside Ventures, with participation from Entrepreneur First, Y Combinator, Kube Venture, and Upsparks.