CHENNAI: Finances and millennials, as the stereotype goes, don’t really get along. While investment firms talk about using their money on pension plans and stock market, the youngsters have their eyes set on goals like savings or a much-awaited holiday. Bridging this gap, this Gurugram-based start-up personalises savings and investments in a DIY fashion. It is a tool to help millennials get into a habit of saving money, be it saving up for a dream plan, their start-up, father’s retirement party, or any one of the several hundred reasons one might need money for. Samant Sikka got this idea in 2016 and he launched the Sqrrl app in March 2017. In just a year-and-a-half, the app has already over 1,50,000 users. The USP of the app is that it is available in seven languages including Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, and Malayalam.
Unlike many finance applications, Sqrrl focuses on customising the savings and investment plans according to the user’s needs. “Over a period of ten months, we talked to about 400 young adults to know what their concerns are in terms of money. We used to invite batches of four to five persons to our office and just talk over food and beer,” says Samant. Elaborating further, he said, “What we noticed is that we were using the words savings and investments interchangeably. However, they said that investment is a long shot when they can barely save by the end of the month and that there is no bank or firm catering to them. Everyone is only selling their product.
So, we based the features of our app on the users’ needs instead of selling a product and using unnecessary jargon.”Users can set their goals and choose a deadline on the application, based on which the app will plan their expenses and finances to reach their goal. Samant also points out an interesting feature in the app which is available in iOS and App Store. “The Sqrrl Away features rounds up your expenses and saves the difference. So if you spent `125 on a coffee, the app will round it up to 130 and save `5 for later. This way, you save as you spend,” he says.
Being available in seven languages gives the app an added advantage in the market. “We are probably the only app which is available in regional languages. One would be surprised but the digital barrier is decreasing and the need for handling money is universal. Hence, when we eliminated the language barrier, we got a lot more takers,” he added.
Although Sqrrl started on the savings that Samant made over the years, they recently raised $1 million in their Pre-Series - A funding round from Equanimity Venture Fund. With people from over 500
towns and cities already using Sqrrl, Samant is confident that they are only going to go higher.