Livspace founder invests Rs 4 crore in fin-tech startup GroMo

Ramakant Sharma, co-Founder of home decor startup Livspace has invested Rs 4 crore in Gurgaon based fin-tech platform GroMo.

The seed funding round also saw participation from Utsav Somani of AngelList India and other angel investors. The company plans to use the capital to strengthen its core technology and operations team.

The tech-enabled social commerce platform aims to provide access to financial products such as loans, insurance and investments to the underserved Tier 2 cities in India through GroMo partners.

It targets CAs, property dealers, travel agents and students to partner with the company and leverages their social network via WhatsApp, Facebook, Sharechat, etc., for sale of financial products to generate additional income for themselves.

The pilot launched in Jaipur and Alwar got 500 partners onboard and aims to expand to more cities in the coming months. It presently offers loans and will add insurance and investment products later.

"India currently witnesses the lowest adoption level of financial products in the world. There is a lack of trust and understanding among the people, especially in Tier 2 and beyond markets. These markets are set to drive the next wave of growth for the fin-tech industry," Ankit Khandelwal, co-founder and chief executive officer of GroMo said.

"We believe we can increase the penetration levels of financial products in smaller towns by building a social commerce platform to sell financial products," Khandelwal added.

Launched in early 2019, GroMo is founded by three IIT Delhi alumni, Ankit Khandelwal, Darpan Khurana, and Arpit Khandelwal.

Prior to starting GroMo, Ankit Khandelwal was the chief operating officer at Unicommerce, a SaaS e-commerce company acquired by Snapdeal in 2015. Khurana was director, strategy, and investments at Snapdeal. Arpit Khandelwal, on the other hand, had co-founded DezignUp which was acquired by Livspace.