Fintech startup GroMo raises $11M in Series A round led by SIG Venture Capital

GroMo, a fintech platform for distribution of financial products, has raised $11 million in its Series A funding round led by SIG Venture Capital, the Asian venture capital arm of SIG—a global proprietary trading and private equity investment firm. 

The other key investors include Y-Combinator, Das Capital, Goodwater Capital, Beyond Next Ventures, Soma Capital, Ace & Company, and Hauz Khas Ventures. The company has also received funding from angel investors including Kunal Shah (CRED), Niraj Singh (Spinny), Ramakant Sharma (Livspace), Alok Mittal (Indifi), Utsav Somani (iSeed, AngelList India), Ashish Sharma (Innoven), Abhishek Goyal (Tracxn), and Nitin Gupta (Uni Cards). 

The company said it plans to utilise the capital to scale-up hiring across senior management in technology, product, marketing, business, category management, and HR functions, with plans to double the headcount in the coming 6-12 months. It will also use the funding to enter new business partnerships, especially with BFSI players (insurance companies, credit card companies, banks, stockbrokers, NBFCs, etc) to help them expand their reach.

Ankit Khandelwal, CEO and Co-founder, GroMo said, 

“As per SEBI’s recent report, only 27% of India’s population is financially literate, which highlights the need for increased customer support, especially in Tier II, III cities and beyond. Our vision is to drive financial inclusion in underserved markets by bridging this gap through face-to-face interaction, hand-holding by our agents, and after-sales support. Any financial brand can expand its customer acquisition footprint through our base of trained agents who are able to earn significant income by leveraging their social network.” 

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Founded by IIT Delhi alumni, Ankit Khandelwal and Darpan Khurana, GroMo provides access to financial products to Tier II and-beyond cities of India. It has built a tech-enabled social commerce platform to help agents improve access to better financial products for consumers and also bridge the financial literacy gap by helping them choose the right offerings. GroMo works as distributing a broad spectrum of 100+ financial products across insurance, investments, credit cards, loans, savings, and Demat accounts, etc from brands such as IDFC Bank, Jupiter Money, Axis Bank, Freecharge, etc. 

With a team of 80+ members, GroMo has built a network of 1.2 million+ agents on its platform.

Darpan Khurana, Co-founder, GroMo said, “The long-term goal is to become India's largest tech-enabled distribution platform and enable 10 million+ agents to earn from the GroMo platform. Recognising that our employees are our most valuable asset to grow, we completed an ESOP buyback in June of this year to reward their loyalty and contributions.”

"We are excited about GroMo’s approach to use technology to attract, train, and manage people to become successful agents for distributing financial products and target the traditionally underserved markets in India,” added Bhavani Rana, Investment Adviser to SIG.

Working towards the aim of improving agent earnings by allowing for a complete suite of financial products, the company is looking to add partnerships with BFSI players, with a special focus on the credit cards and insurance verticals. GroMo recently received an Insurance Broking License (General and Life) from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).