[Funding alert] Fin-ed-tech startup Akudo raises Pre-Seed round from Y Combinator, Incubate Fund India

Akudo, a learning-first neobank for teenagers in India, on Tuesday announced that it raised a Pre-Seed round from Y-Combinator, Incubate Fund India, and other Indian angels investors earlier this year.

Nao Murakami, Founder and General Partner of Incubate Fund India, said, “Teenagers have been ignored from the fintech revolution in India. Akudo’s financial literacy and neo banking approach fulfils requirements of both teenagers and parents so we believe it will grow very fast by creating a new economy around that.”

Founded in August 2020 by IIT Roorkee and BITS Pilani alumni Lavika Aggarwal, Sajal Khanna, and Jagveer Gandhi, Akudo is a digital bank for teenagers in India.

It provides personalised debit cards that can be used by them independently, with the aim to help them save money, and gives them exciting rewards under a gamified set up when they're good at their personal finance.

Officially launched nine weeks ago, Akudo already claims to have 60,000+ registered customers. It has issued 12,000+ cards and transactions through Akudo have been growing 98 percent week on week. The startup claims that its cards have been delivered to 350+ cities across India.

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According to the startup, it's incredibly easy for teenagers to save through auto-save and round-up-your-spends features that tangibly promote the value of savings as a habit. It has also integrated lots of bite-sized videos explaining important financial concepts within the banking experience for teenagers.

And it's all tied together through a gamified rewards journey where there are different levels within the app and teenagers progress through levels by earning different badges which gamifies practical learning about money for them.

According to Lavika, Akudo is crafting the concept of “learning-first banking” where financial learning is seamlessly integrated right where and when you bank.

The startup offers a one-stop technology solution to the three dimensions of learning about money management viz. awareness, practice and habit building.

An Akudo account has dual partitions — one for saving and one for spending — as all top personal finance authors advise. It has partnered with VISA and RBL Bank to facilitate banking for teenagers.