Dvara SmartGold, a Mumbai-based start-up promoting micro savings, is planning to raise about $1 million in pre-Series A funding, which would be used for product portfolio and further investment in technology. The company intends to raise the funding by March-April 2021.

The company is in discussion with a number of Indian and global private equity firms, with a social well-being focus.

The company, which offers gold savings schemes, will use the funds to bundle new products such as mutual funds, insurance and personnel or small business loans. On the technology front, the firm will use the funding for voice activation for customer services and for analysing customer spending behaviour, among others, Dvara SmartGold Founder-Director Sanjeev Agarwal told BusinessLine .

Launched in October 2019, the Dvara SmartGold platform allows customers to make gold savings and use it for emergencies or planned requirements. The company’s micro-savings product is in line with the Government's policy of "financialising" the gold sector and ensuring gold is used as a productive asset class.

“About 80 per cent of our customers are women, and our customers’ average savings is about Rs 560 per month,” Agarwal said.

The company has 20 employees and another nearly 10 outsourced personnel, and has a presence across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Uttarakhand and Punjab. The average savings of most of the company’s customers is about Rs 560 per month, with an average household income of Rs 1,500-2,500 per month.

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