Flipkart-Backed super.money Launches FDs To Bolster Fintech Super App

In an effort to diversify its product offerings, Flipkart-backed fintech startup super.money has announced the launch of a new fixed deposit (FD) offering, superFD. Under this, users can book FDs for as low as INR 1,000 and gain interest rates of up to 9.5%. 

superFD is live for the startup’s claimed userbase of 7 Mn. Users can start their FDs by undertaking an eKYC process, which the company claims will take about two minutes, to start their FDs. These deposits will be insured by up to INR 5 Lakh by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC).

super.money’s founder and CEO Prakash Sikaria told Inc42 that the startup has partnered with five banks approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to float the new product. 

“By offering attractive interest rates, flexibility, and seamless access, superFD makes it easier for individuals to invest in a low risk, high return product,” he said. 

He said that the company identified the product market fit for the new offering by engaging with users in recent times about the FD related product. 

The result of these interactions was the startup gauging a “palpable amount of excitement” among affluent people in the 20-35 age bracket for an FD which will give 1-2% extra interest rates. Besides, the startup also identified a whitespace in terms of competition block in the FD space. super.money will take on the likes of Stable Money, Grip Invest, Dexif, besides other players currently offering the deposits service. 

super.money’s Credit Card Ambitions

This makes the third offering launched under super.money’s stable. Besides its core UPI offering, superUPI, it launched a co-branded credit card named superCard in August.

Under this, users can get credit cards for limits as low as INR 90 by initiating deposits between INR 100 all the way to INR 10 Lakh.

Giving an update on super.money’s ambition with the credit card offering, Sikaria said that the fintech aims to become the largest open ended credit card distributor in the country by January. He believes that super.money’s credit card offering can overtake the credit card services offered by Amazon and Flipkart in terms of total distribution moving forward.

While it has yet to officially begin the distribution of the said cards, the founder claimed that the company has seen interest from 1.25 Mn users till date. As for now, super.money is opening the waitlist in a gradual manner.

He said that the major issue in the deferment of the distribution of the credit cards till date has been a mismatch in terms of the demand and supply from the bank.

The credit card offering went live in partnership with Utkarsh Small Finance Bank. “As of now, the bank is in the process of ramping up its operations to handle the scale. I am expecting the distribution of about 100K cards by January once the bank is fully scaled up,” he said. 

superUPI Charges Up

Since launch of its beta phase in June, super.money has been bullish on the expansion of its first product, superUPI. Two months later, the startup rolled out its UPI offerings for users in a full-fledged manner.

The startup has seen its UPI offering scale from 7.5 Mn transactions in July to nearly 50 Mn in the month of October. Last month, super.money facilitated 49.68 Mn transactions worth INR 2,167.86 Cr. 

With this, the startup took the 12th spot in UPI transactions in the month, overtaking Groww, Mobikwik, BHIM and Jupiter Money. 

At the time of launch, super.money aimed at facilitating 100 Mn monthly UPI transactions by the end of the year. Sikaria believes that the company is on track to achieve this target. 

Moving forward, super.money has plans to foray into credit lines and personal loans by March next year.  Currently, the company is working on forging partnerships for both these offerings. Meanwhile, its team is zeroing in on the tech aspects of these offerings. Sikaria believes that the work on these fronts will be completed by the end of the first quarter of the next calendar year.

Inc42 reported in September that the startup was looking to raise funding to fuel product plans. However, Sikaria said super.money will look for external funding only by June-July next year after scaling its other offerings as well. 

“Our financial services thesis is playing out. It is in motion and it will become a lot clearer in 6 months from now. I think that will be the right time for us to start engaging with investors,” he added.