As Paytm Money nears launch, Paytm acquires Bengaluru-based wealth management app ‘Balance.Tech’
One97 Communications Limited that owns Paytm on Thursday announced the acquisition of Bengaluru-based smart-savings management startup ‘Balance.Tech’ for an undisclosed amount.
Started in the second quarter of 2016, by serial entrepreneurs Ankit Kumar and Abhishek Malik, Balance is a saving app for individuals, which nudges individuals to save through understanding the spend pattern.
In a statement, Paytm said that it was impressed with the Balance team’s insights and track record in building intelligent and elegantly designed products.
As part of the acquisition, the six-member team has joined the Paytm product and design team and is working on further enhancing Paytm’s user and merchant interfaces.
Speaking on the acquisition, Madhur Deora, Chief Financial Officer and SVP, Paytm said,
“We are excited to welcome Ankit, Abhishek and the Balance.Tech team to Paytm. They have created a fantastic product with real user engagement. As we constantly look to create customised and intuitive user experiences, the Balance.Tech team will be an invaluable part of this journey.”
Ankit Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder, Balance.Tech said,
“Our team has been building automated products that make the saving experience relatable and delightful by helping users reach their goals in clever little ways. Our conversational personal savings assistant nudges users to build a saving habit, and give purpose to their money as they go about their busy lives. We look forward to bring in computational intelligence, unique design and proprietary algorithms with Balance to help Paytm users accomplish more with their money.”
The Balance app was incubated under Zerodha’s startup initiative, Rainmatter. The app was available to the 2.5 lakh customers of Zerodha’s trading platform Kite.
In June last year, Balance saw an average saving of Rs 500 with every task and looked to get close to 1,00,000 users by the end of this year.
The founders had then claimed to have more than 10,000 users on the platform.
The acquisition of the Bengaluru-based wealth management app comes at a time when Paytm’s indigenous wealth management platform Paytm Money is scheduled to launch by August end.
Recently, the company announced that Paytm Money has more than half a million users signed up on its platform already to buy mutual funds.
Paytm Money is the fourth consumer brand apart from Paytm, Paytm Mall, and Paytm Payments Bank for the company.
With the division formed in October last year, the company also announced the appointment of Pravin Jadhav as Senior Vice President who will lead the new venture.
Paytm Money will launch mutual funds as its first product on the platform and was in discussion with almost all 40 Asset Management Companies (AMC) in the country.