Indian neobank Jupiter raises $86 million to launch lending and wealth management services

Industry veteran Jitendra Gupta’s consumer-focused neobank Jupiter has raised about $86 million in a new financing round as the Bangalore-based startup gears up to offer its customers lending and wealth management services.

Tiger Global, QED and Sequoia Capital India co-led the two-year-old startup’s Series C round, Gupta told TechCrunch in an interview. The new round values the startup at $711 million, up from about $300 million in its August Series B funding.

MUFG Bank, Japan’s largest bank, also invested in the new round, making its debut fintech backing in the South Asian market. Existing investors 3one4 Capital and Mirae Asset also participated in the round.

Launched in beta in June this year, Jupiter has established itself as a market-leading “100% digital bank” in India. The startup has amassed “just short of half a million users,” said Gupta. More than 65% of this user base actively transacts on the platform each month, he said.

“We are more than doubling transaction volume each month. We should end this month at over $60 million worth of transactions,” said Gupta, who previously co-founded CitrusPay, a fintech startup that was acquired by PayU.

Scores of startups in India are attempting to improve the banking experience in India today. Whether you are a teenager, or just out of college, or a working professional, or don’t have a credit score, there are firms that can get you a credit card and loan. But most of these services have a ceiling limit of some sort.

The fintech veteran is taking a broader approach to win customers by adding what he says is “delight” to the banking experience. And that bet appears to be working. Jupiter, which offers its customers a banking account as well as a debit card, is adding about 5,000 users each day and its burn is less than $1 million a month.

Reducing the friction customers face while engaging with their banks and an additional layer of offerings have helped neobanks make inroads in several markets in recent years. The top 20 neobanks globally have about 180 million customers, analysts at Jefferies wrote in a note earlier this month. This figure “may appear small overall, but the number is growing fast,” they wrote.

Gupta said the startup now has more than $145 million in its bank. It has yet to deploy any capital it raised from its previous round — which eventually ballooned to $50 million. Moreover, it has yet to tap nearly half of the $25 million fund it raised in its Series A round two years ago.

He said Jupiter, which employs about 300 people, is focusing on developing new services for its customers. By April, the startup plans to offer its customers a lending feature. Next year, it will also launch investment products.

“We have sufficient capital to use. We are confident to reach at least 2 million users by the end of next year,” he said.