Exclusive: Shark Tank Fame Plus Gold Shuts Shop

About a year after featuring on Shark Tank India, digital gold savings startup Plus Gold has wound up operations. After raising over $1.2 Mn from notable VC firms and angel investors like Acko’s Varun Dua, the startup ceased its operations due to an inability to secure further capital, its cofounder and ex-CEO Veer Mishra told Inc42.

“Despite strong user traction and early-stage success, the company faced a prolonged funding winter, and sustaining high operating costs without fresh capital became untenable,” he said.

Founded in 2022 by Mishra and Raj Parekh, Plus Gold operated a full-stack platform designed to make gold savings and investments more accessible. The app let users save in digital gold with flexible amounts or through fixed monthly SIPs.

Available on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store, the Plus Gold app allowed users to redeem their savings as cash or jewellery, with up to 5% additional benefits. The app had over 1 Lakh downloads on the Google Play Store.

The startup’s digital gold partner was Augmont, while the assets were secured by ICICI Lombard. 

While Plus Gold has halted its core operations completely, its app is still active for end users. 

“Plus Gold, as a brand and product, has already found a new home. We have successfully transitioned the Plus Gold app and customer infrastructure to a credible digital gold player to ensure continued service for users… Details about the acquiring entity will be formally disclosed by the new operator at an appropriate time. However, this was not an acquisition of the company itself but rather a brand and platform transition,” Mishra said.

Notably, some users of Plus Gold have been complaining about facing troubles in withdrawing their deposits from the app. A user said on Reddit that despite multiple attempts to withdraw funds from the app, the process couldn’t be completed.

However, Mishra said that no investor funds are locked on the platform and all funds are safely backed by gold holdings, and customers retain full access to withdraw or sell their gold through the app as usual. 

How Plus Gold Faltered 

High cash burn and the capital intensive nature of the business were the key factors behind Plus Gold’s failure. A spokesperson of Venture Catalyst, an investor in Plus Gold, told Inc42 that the VC firm’s management is actively exploring opportunities and potential deals that could help minimise the impact and recover value for its investors.

“One of the key reasons the business was unable to scale successfully was that its unit economics did not evolve strongly enough to support sustainable growth, which in turn impacted its ability to attract follow-on funding,” the spokesperson said. 

Plus Gold had raised $1.2 Mn in its seed funding round led by JITO, in participation with Venture Catalysts and The Signal Group’s investment arm Signal Ventures, in June last year.

According to Mishra, the startup saw encouraging early interest from investors and even received a few term sheets for its Series A round. However, a combination of factors — tightening capital markets, shifting investor priorities, and broader macroeconomic uncertainties — resulted in delays and eventually collapse of those commitments, leading to the downfall.

With this, yet another startup in the digital gold savings segment has shut shop. Last year, Ahmedabad-based startup GoldPe, which was backed by 100X.VC, shut down due to absence of a sustainable revenue stream, a flawed business model, and cash flow issues.

[Edited by: Vinaykumar Rai]