[Funding alert] Neobank Walrus raises undisclosed amount from Better Capital

Bengaluru-based neobank Walrus on Wednesday announced it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding for its platform, which is focussed on providing banking solutions for teens and young adults. 

The pre-seed funding round was led by Better Capital, an early backer of neobanks in India, which has invested in Open, KhataBook, Jupiter, YeLo, and SlicePay. The round also saw participation from seasoned angel investors, including Raveen Sastry (Co-founder, Myntra), Raghunandan G (Ex-Founder and CEO of TaxiForSure), and Brijesh Thakkar among others. 

The startup said it plans to utilise the funding to expand its team and enhance product features. 

Lead investor Vaibhav Domkundwar said, 

“Walrus is the biggest missing link for today’s Instagram generation in India - it puts money in the hands of the teenagers so they can feel independent, make their own choices, learn from the choices they make and grow up to be a financially educated generation. We have 200 million such teenagers who will experience money and money management in a new way with Walrus.”

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Founded in 2019 by Bhagaban Behera (CEO), Sriharsha Setty (CTO), and Nakul Kelkar (COO), Walrus is a digital-only banking platform for teenagers aged 13 and upwards. Although aimed specifically at teenagers, Walrus said its services can be used by anyone up to the age of 22. The platform claims to provide them a secure and “Gen Z-like” banking solution that helps them to manage their money smartly and inculcate good financial habits. 

Parents can use the app to transfer money to their kids instantly via UPI, who can then spend the money hassle-free, the startup said.

Bhagaban Behera, CEO, Walrus, said,

“We allow parents to educate and financially support their children in their first steps using a digital financial product. Built for the Instagram generation, Walrus is an Instagram equivalent for a bank account, which is cool, new-age, intuitive, and easy to use.”

According to the startup, teenagers do not need to open a bank account to use Walrus. They would be able to install the app, load money, and pay any merchant via UPI QR code or using the debit card for ecommerce purchases.

Walrus said it is also building a community known as ‘Club Walrus’, which is a teens-only network for networking and learning interesting things like entrepreneurship, building products, digital marketing, etc., from industry experts. 

Although the startup is in beta, it claims that it is witnessing a strong demand for its product from teenagers and is seeing a high engagement and retention amongst its thousands of  beta users.