Jar, a gold-backed micro-savings fintech startup, raised $22.6 million in Series B funding at a valuation of over $300 million, making it one of the few fintech to raise millions during a funding slowdown one of the companies. The startup was valued at $200 million in its last funding round in February.

The latest round was led by Tiger Global, with other returning investors including Arkam Ventures, Eximius Ventures, Force Ventures, LetsVenture, Rocketship Venture Capital and WEH Ventures. New investors in the Series B round include 1Finance, Capier Investments, Cloud Capital, Folius Ventures, Panthera Capital, Prophetic Ventures, Yes VC, Adam Nash and Zachary Hargreaves.

The startup plans to use the funding round to expand its workforce and continue to build a comprehensive one-stop financial platform for savings.

In February 2022, Jar raised $32 million in a Series A round at a valuation of $200 million led by New York-based investment firm Tiger Global.

Startup funding in the Indian ecosystem fell sharply in Q2FY22 as lower investor confidence led to a major ‘funding winter’ to late-stage financing. However, despite the slowdown in late-stage deals, early-stage deals from seed rounds to Series A have seen an uptick, although both the first and second quarters of 2022 saw a year-over-year decline in the number of deals on Wednesday.

The Jar was founded in May 2021 by Misbah Ashraf and Nishchay AG and claimed to have over 9 million users to date. The startup stated that it is currently working on expanding its roster of savings and investment products. A Jar spokeswoman told FE the app would expand to other financial services such as credit and insurance in the future.

Jar launched its first gold-backed savings product in June 2021. The platform currently processes an average of 220,000 transactions per day. The startup added that it had witnessed continued growth in user savings, with the average savings amount increasing by 20% month-on-month. “A typical Indian middle class can save around $1,000 a year, and we intend to get more than 50% of our income through Jar,” the spokesperson added.

Research shows that most Indians start making money in their 20s but don’t consider long-term financial planning until about a decade later, partly because they are intimidated by the complexities of traditional investment options.
“As our users are highly aligned with all aspects of our platform based on existing behavioural patterns, we have been fortunate to witness early and agile adoption. We have seen user savings grow by an average of 20% per month, and we are delighted to see their Growth has become a committed and confident investor. We will continue expanding our services to accommodate them and help them achieve their financial independence goals, said Nishchay AG, CEO and co-founder of Jar.

Alex Cook, Partner at Tiger Global, said of the funding: “Jar’s savings app started with digital gold, an asset class well known and loved in India, and quickly became interested in developing savings and investment strategies. We are very excited about the company’s rapid growth and are excited to double down as they expand into new asset classes.”