Fintech Startup Sqrrl Raises $1 Mn From Equanimity Venture Fund

App-based investment platform Sqrrl Fintech has raised $1 Mn in its Pre-Series A round of funding from Equanimity Venture Fund.

The Gurugram-based startup plans to use the funding to pursue aggressive growth and add to its product and tech prowess. Sqrrl aims to invest in new age technologies, particularly machine learning and artificial intelligence, to sharpen its product recommendation and further smoothen its on-boarding process.

Post this investment, Rajesh Sehgal, the Managing Partner of Equanimity Investments, will join the board of Sqrrl Fintech.

Launched in March 2017 by trio Samant Sikka, Dhananjay Singh and Sanjeev Sharma, Sqrrl app is aimed at helping young Indians to build the habit of savings and investments. It allows users to invest in high performing (zero-commission) mutual funds based on their investment needs, risk horizons and goals.

Further, with a feature to round up your spending to INR 100 or INR 500, Sqrrl automatically invests the leftover amount, making it extremely convenient for the young generation to save while they spend.

The company claims to have amassed more than 150K download across Android and iOS. Over 76% of Sqrrl’s users are under the age of 35, and 61% of its user base is beyond the top 15 cities.

Incubated at JioGenNext, Sqrrl is also a member of WeWork Labs, an initiative of WeWork to help startups with its space, global network and educational resources.

In a statement, the company claimed that the total Assets under Management (AUM) to GDP ratio of India stands at a mere 10%, way below the global average of 55%. With an abysmally low share in the financial saving of 2.9%, the mutual fund industry has huge potential for growth.

“Targeting the rapidly growing segment of 300 million smartphone users, Sqrrl seeks to use the growth capital to reach out to a million users across India by 2019,” said co-founder Sanjeev Sharma.

The startup counts Shripad Nadkarni, an angel investor and marketing guru; Advait Dikshit, business and change management expert; and Carl Richards, a New York Times columnist and author of ‘The Behaviour Gap’ as advisors, who continue to help in business strategy formulation and marketing. In addition, Ravi Sud, Former CFO of Hero MotoCorp and Rajesh Cherayil, CEO of a private equity fund – Nereus Capital are strategic investors in Sqrrl.

On the development, Samant Sikka, CEO and Co-founder at Sqrrl said, “India is at an inflexion point where tech-in-fin can solve for our biggest problems of access and efficient distribution and significantly contribute to India’s GDP. At Sqrrl, we are reimagining the financial services template for the young Indians. With a compelling proposition and obsessive focus on delivering best-in-class customer experience, we aspire to ultimately morph into a digital bank.”

Sqrrl claims to have customers in more than 500 cities in India and is aspiring to reach more than 5 Mn customers over next five years.

Commenting on the development, Rajesh Sehgal, said, “I have found the Indian millennial generation to be pretty money savvy and naturally adapting to technology platforms like Sqrrl to achieve their short-term and long-term financial goals. The Sqrrl team is working hard to reach out to the broader India with its very highly intuitive offering available in 9 Indian languages. We look forward to working with them and supporting this cause of helping young Indians become financially strong and independent in the long run.”

The Indian fintech software market is forecast to cross $2.4 Bn by 2020, according to a report by KPMG India and NASSCOM.

India is currently home to more than 500 fintech startups. According to Inc42 DataLabs, fintech as a sector witnessed the highest funding in the first two quarters.