Exclusive: Kids fintech startup Junio in talks to raise $3 mn from Good Capital, others

Firstpay Technologies, operator of digital pocket money solution for kids Junio, is in talks to raise $3 million in a seed round, from venture capital (VC) firm Good Capital and angel investor Dib Chaudhuri, among others, a person in the know told TechCircle.

A company spokesperson declined TechCircle's request for a comment on the matter.

On Thursday, the company said in a statement, that Junio will launch in January 2021. Junio’s official website is live on the world wide web, TechCircle reviewed.

Good Capital is a seed-to-Series A stage focused venture capital firm launched by Investopad founders Rohan Malhotra and Arjun Malhotra in 2019, to back B2B and B2C startups in India and the United States.

The fund’s investments include wealth management platform Wealthy, digital insurance company MetaMorphoSys, edtech platform Entri, and video-based ecommerce platform SimSim. 

Chaudhuri is a Singapore based serial entrepreneur.

Founded in 2020, Junio operates as a digital pocket money smart card that lets children between classes four and ten, make digital and physical purchases. It lets parents pay pocket money digitally.

The Delhi-based company was founded by former Paytm chief marketing officer and senior vice president Shankar Nath, and former Paytm head of user growth Ankit Gera in September.

“With the launch of Junio in January 2021, our aim is to create a community of financially smart and empowered young generation. The target is to deploy 2 lakh smart cards pan India by the end of 2021,” Gera said in the statement.

Junio, the statement added, will allow parents to keep a track of the spending made by children, and set in-app daily tasks for their kids to tie them with perks. “The app is integrated with features such as setting withdrawal limits for ATM and gives flexibility to parents to cancel the card at any moment using the app.”

The nascent space of fintech aimed at kids as a target group in India also includes Bengaluru-based Walrus and Hyderabad-based Pencilton, and is yet to gain considerable traction in terms of investor dollars.