Fintech startup Deciml scouts for funds to expand

Pune: City-based fintech Deciml, a platform aimed at inculcating investing habits among youngsters, has reached an inflection point in terms of its subscriber base and is looking for more funding to push its expansion plans. “We are going for a fresh funding round in June-July. Last round was very strategic, but now we will move towards institutional investors,” founder, Satyajeet Kunjeer, said in an interaction with TOI. The company raised $1 million in its pre-seed round in November, which mostly included angel investors and content creators.The company invests on behalf of its users by rounding-off payments made by them via Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which are then invested in mutual funds or a lending platform. If the user spends Rs 28 and has selected the round-up option of Rs 10, Rs 2 will be deducted. If the round-up option selected is Rs 50, Rs 22 will be deducted. The round-up of Rs 10 is the default option. Users can invest as low as Rs 1 through the platform.The firm has completed 100 days of its operations, and in that time, the amount it has invested on behalf of its users has jumped to Rs 8 lakh a day from mere Rs 9,000 per day when it rolled out the platform in November last year. Now the company is planning to further grow that number to Rs 60-70 lakh a day in the next 60-70 days. The reason behind the growth is the scalability of the platform, according to Kunjeer. The platform is linked to bank accounts of the users and once there is a debit, the round-up amount is auto-debited and invested.The amount collected gets invested in a peer-to-peer lending platform Lendbox and in mutual funds of Navi Technologies. The company has received a distributor licence from AMFI and earns commissions in the range of 1.3-2.5%. With a rising user base, the company is also looking at ways to coax them into staying invested for longer or invest higher amounts.