Jar, an Indian fintech startup that allows users to invest in gold, has increased profitability by helping millions of first-time savers use the app to build digital gold holdings.
While many consumer fintechs focus on wealthy urban users or credit products, JAR has gained traction by offering gold, a culturally familiar asset, as an entry point for a low barrier to savings. Startups from four years ago targeted low-to-middle-income users (segments that are underserved by traditional financial institutions).
That strategy helped JAR reach over 35 million registered users across 12,000 ZIP codes, co-founder and CEO Nishchay AG said in an interview. Approximately 60% of users come from small cities and towns in India (known as Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns), with over 95% officially saving for the first time, he told TechCrunch.
The startup’s finances reflect this momentum, with two sources familiar with the issue informing TechCrunch that they are even planning to release it next year. Investment bankers are involved in IPO startups, sources said.
These bankers have compelling growth stories to share. JAR’s operating revenues rose nine times in 2024, which ended in March, to £2.08 billion (approximately $23.6 million), as revealed in the latest submission. More dramatically, the total revenues of all business lines during that same period jumped to £245 billion (approximately $279.3 million), representing a 49-fold jump from 500 million ($5.7 million) in the previous fiscal year.
This total revenue figure includes revenue from Digital Gold Transactions, jewelry sales through the NEK platform, and fees from third-party distribution partnerships.
Jewelry components are a significant part of this diverse approach. NEK was launched early last year and offered gold, silver, diamonds and lab-grown diamond jewelry with over 8,000 ZIP codes. This platform runs on a zero-stock dropshipment model. Last year, it exceeded £1 billion in annual revenue (approximately $11 million), and “it has grown steadily ever since,” Nishkei said.
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JAR has been profitable after the taxes in the last two quarters, Nishkei told TechCrunch.
That growth is tied to bets by the company in new directions. Until last year, JAR served as a distribution platform that primarily works with third-party digital gold providers. Since then, he has integrated the business vertically, building an internal technology stack to directly purchase, store and manage gold, and BDO has been on the verge of being a statutory auditor and custody partner. By controlling the entire value chain, JAR now captures a larger share of the gold value chain and distributes money through third-party platforms, including Phonepe, a fintech company owned by Walmart.
Earlier this year, the Bengaluru-based startup will partner with both Bharatpe and Unity Small Finance Bank to make digital payments to both individuals and merchants through the JAR app using India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) system. UPI is India’s dominant digital payment network that enables instant bank-to-bank transfers using smartphones. The move aims to increase user engagement and retention by opening up new revenue streams and expanding app utilities beyond mere money savings.
JAR is also an early adopter of UPI Autopay. This is a feature introduced by the Indian government in 2020, allowing for repeated payments on the UPI platform. This feature supported startups that only supported UPI-based payments for money savings, according to sources familiar with the issue, and helped them to facilitate repetitive transactions from users.
“Daily savings are our hero feature, and that’s what most of our users use it,” Nishchay said when asked how UPI Autopay has contributed to the growth of the company.
The app serves a diverse user base, from skilled IT professionals to skilled manufacturing professionals to small business owners and daily wage workers such as electricians, plumbers, carpenters and construction workers. This app supports nine Indian languages. It says this will help the company deal with users beyond education and income levels.
The startup has also designed the app to provide users with a personalized experience to encourage money savings with gamification and nodge.
“The growth team has consistently built a variety of cohorts to identify consumers based on many attributes and data signals based on the phone they use, where they operate their phones, where they are in the language, where they are consistent storage patterns and what they take into account,” Nishkei said.
Startups count among investors in Tiger Global, Tribe Capital, Arkam Ventures and Weh Ventures. Each Tracxn has raised $63.3 million in funding so far, and has been valued at over $300 million in the end.
