The Money Club raises $2.5M in Series A Funding to Empower Financial Inclusion for India’s Lower Middle-Class

~ The funding round was led by Prudent Investment Managers and supported by existing investors like Venture Catalysts, LetsVenture, Z21 & Supermorepheus. ~

New Delhi, 5th December 2024: The Money Club, an on-demand liquidity platform, has raised $2.5 million in their Series A funding round led by Prudent Investment Managers. The round also welcomed new investors which included HNIs from Singapore and Dubai, along with 1Crowd AIF. Existing investors that continued to back the company included Venture Catalysts, LetsVenture, Z21 Ventures and Supermorepheus, reaffirming their stance and belief in The Money Clubs vision and growth story. Radix Capital Advisors acted as exclusive investment bankers for this transaction.

Led by Mr. Prashasta Seth, Prudent Investment Managers creates a concentrated portfolio of high conviction bets and then backs these companies across multiple raises. Any investment goes through extensive diligence on unit economics and ability of the team to scale the business.

“It has been an interesting journey with Money Club who we first evaluated three years back. During our continuous interaction we have seen the money club model evolve over a period of time. We are convinced now that with the first mover advantage and the disruption that Money Club is causing , a large and profitable business will be built. Our call is as much on the business model as it is on Manuraj, who has been navigating the business through its up and downs in the last few years , with a clear sense of direction and objectivity.”- Prashasta Seth, CEO, Prudent Investment Managers

The Money Club has been designed to cater to the unmet financial needs of low-income populations, particularly the 400 million lower middle-class Indians who face significant barriers in accessing traditional financial products and end up falling prey to local moneylenders and loan sharks.

Launched in 2018, by IITian Manuraj Jain, The Money Club provides a fully digital platform that offers its new-to-credit users on-demand liquidity, sitting at home, without any physical paperwork!

“The funding will enable us to further develop our innovative financial inclusion solutions, expand our technological capabilities, and continue our mission of providing financial empowerment to underserved populations. This round is a testament to investors’ confidence in the wide-ranging impact and massive potential of our disruptive business model, not only in India but globally,” said Manuraj Jain, Founder & CEO of The Money Club, who is also an alumnus of INSEAD and brings an extensive experience in investment banking, strategy consulting, and entrepreneurship to the organization.

His professional journey began with a globetrotting role at Schlumberger, where he worked on oil rigs for Fortune 50 oil companies. Later, he made a significant shift to Intellecap to pursue his passion for creating meaningful social impact. At Intellecap, he gained grassroots experience, working with SHG women in rural India. Building on this experience, he ventured into entrepreneurship by founding Vinculum Capital Partners, where he played a pivotal role in scaling a diverse portfolio of companies. It was during this period that the concept for The Money Club was conceived, driven by his vision to solve a massive problem at scale.

The Money Club’s unique and disruptive business model is based on the 700 year old phenomena of ROSCAs that is rampant with almost 400 million Indians today. The platform enables users from across the country to rotate their savings digitally and get access to funds, on demand, in times of need. It runs entirely on UPI rails, collects valuable behavioral data, enabling a dynamic, real-time underwriting model that creates accurate credit profiles using 30+ unique attributes per transaction. This approach provides 20 times more data than traditional credit models, significantly enhancing the, non-existent, digital footprint of nano-entrepreneurs to bring them under the ambit of the formal financial ecosystem. The company has successfully acquired over 7 lakh users, mostly new to credit, who have rotated approximately INR 350 Cr of their savings till date and generated a digital footprint of over 4.3M+ transactions. This achievement is complemented by an impressively low default rate of below 1% and a remarkable 98% user retention rate.

The Money Club has garnered significant recognition for its innovative approach. It was a finalist in the “Financial Inclusion” category of the National Startups Awards by Startup India and was honored as one of the top 200 FinTechs globally in the “Alternative Lending” category by CNBC and Statista. Furthermore, it was named Technology Service Provider of the Year by the Economic Times for 2023.