Dvara SmartGold, a microsavings-focused fintech, said on Monday that it has secured USD two million in a pre-series A round of investment from Axilor, a sector-neutral seed fund, and Dvara Holdings. Dvara SmartGold, which allows consumers to save in the form of grammes of pure gold through tiny flexible instalments (SIPs), intends to use the funds to expand its pan-India presence for micro-savings and provide new products using gold as the fulcrum.
“The Dvara SmartGold micro-savings product is in line with the government’s policy of ‘financialising’ the gold sector and ensuring gold is used as a productive asset class,” the company said.
Commenting on the investment, Interim CEO of Dvara SmartGold Jaydeep Banerjee said, “We currently have in excess of 70,000 customers and the capital raised will be used to expand pan India footprint for micro-savings and introducing various products with gold as the fulcrum. “As part of the Dvara’s larger financial inclusion mission we aim to provide each underserved household in the country, access to relevant financial services that will help in giving them financial independence and respect in society”, he added.
Axilor Co-founder and CEO Ganapathy Venugopal said, “Gold is the most intuitive savings product and inflation hedge for a majority of households in India. We are excited to partner with Dvara SmartGold which aims to unlock its value for over 400 million underserved Indians by helping them save more through micro-savings and achieve their financial goals by offering liquidity and security.”
Dvara Holdings Executive Vice-Chair and Co-founder Samir Shah said, “Financial inclusion in India has thus far been largely focused on Jan Dhan accounts, payments and credit. We believe that this is incomplete without solving the problem of micro-savings for the underserved segment and also building financial services around micro-savings.”
Dvara SmartGold was founded in 2019 with the goal of creating a full-stack financial services offering centred on gold as an asset class.
