Matrix Partners India leads $1.7 mn seed funding round in goDutch

Mumbai headquartered goDutch Technologies, which owns and operates an eponymous group payments platform, has raised $1.7 million in a seed funding round led by Matrix Partners India.

Other investors in the round include YCombinator, Global Founders Capital, Soma Capital and VentureSouq, along with angel investors Justin Mateen, founder of dating app Tinder; Kevin Lin, co-founder of live streaming platform Twitch; Rohan Angrish, head of ICICI Labs; and Sumon Sadhu, chief revenue officer at Plato Design, according to a statement.

The product, targeted at young adults, allows groups of users to split bills and settle payments on the app. The firm has partnered with CSB Bank to provide a virtual group pay card that is linked to each account, using which every group member can pay their share of the bill. The company said that it aims to soon issue physical cards as well.

“While many existing apps allow recording of group transactions, none of those enable seamless peer-to-peer settlements or real-time splitting. It’s a real pain point for young adults,” Rajat Agarwal, director of Matrix India, said in the statement. “We believe that group payments can also be an exciting entry point to ultimately target group commerce and bring it online.” 

goDutch was incorporated in 2019 by former IIT Bombay alumni Sagar Sheth, Aniruddh Singh and Riyaz Khan. While Sheth previously worked with Eight Roads Ventures and AT Kearney, Anirudhh Singh was with Axis Bank, while Riyaz Khan was a product manager at InstaReM.  

“Currently for group payments, people are using traditional payment apps that are designed for one-to-one payments. Given the frequency of shared transactions one has with their friends, it’s time to look at this problem separately. Thus, we are introducing the goDutch card, through which friends can share their payments in real time,” co-founder Khan, also the chief product officer of goDutch, said in the statement. 

The app has similarities with US company Splitwise, which is backed by Great Oaks Venture Capital and rocketship.vc. Personal finance app Walnut, which was acquired by Capital Float in 2018, had a bill split feature apart from expense tracking built into it.