Mumbai | 23rd December 2020: Venture Catalysts, India’s first and largest integrated incubator and accelerator, has recently invested an undisclosed amount in YPay, a digital payment platform for young kids and teen students in Tier 3 and below cities.
Founded by Dr. Navneet Gupta, the start-up is a digital payment platform that enables young teen students to gain financial literacy, learn as well as manage their personal spending. The app also empowers the whole family to monitor and assist their children’s development as they learn about money management in a controlled manner and safe environment. Through its unique SmartCard, YPayhelps students adopt and conveniently manage digital payment for all purchases like books, stationeries, canteen, school fee etc. This is done in a controlled environment by focusing on merchants who are mostly approached by the student demographic like the inside of schools and any hyperlocal market around schools. In the process, YPay aims to help hyperlocal businesses generate more revenue while providing kids with a real-world lesson in financial responsibility.
Speaking on the investment, Dr. Navneet Gupta – Founder at YPay, said, This is the first time we are raising funds and we are very thankful to Dr Apoorva Ranjan from Venture Catalyst and Mr Neeraj Tyagi from We Founders Circle for showing trust in us and investing in YPAY. We will be utilising these funds for technology, partnership, and expansion in 25 more cities.
Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder & President – Venture Catalysts, added, “Digital payment has become the heart and soul of our country’s economy. So it only makes sense that children should be given financial literacy from a young age to make them understand the value of money and how to manage their finances. On the back of its unique IP, YPay is equipped to disrupt the USD 60 billion Indian school education market. It aims to allow students to digitally manage all school-premise transactions through its innovative smart card. Dr. Gupta is backed by a founding team with strong domain experiences and allied skill sets which, if harnessed effectively, can catapult the start-up to success in no time. The team has our full support as they set out on this new venture.”
To keep the whole process even more secure and safe, the app allows parents the option to set their kids’ daily spending limit, manage their allowances, block/unblock the card and choose the exact stores where they can spend the money. For every transaction/purchase made, parents receive notifications that keeps them informed about the spending.
