Bengaluru-based payment services company FamPay said Thursday it has raised USD 4.7 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, Venture Highway, Sequoia India, and Global Founders Capital. The seed round also saw participation from a few angel investors such as Cred founder Kunal Shah, Pine Labs chief executive Amrish Rau, former WhatsApp Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, and Robinhood co-founder Vladimir Tenev.
Founded in 2019 by Kush Taneja and Sambhav Jain—two alumni of the renowned engineering college IIT-Roorkie—FamPay provides teenagers and minors a debit card without the need of opening a bank account. Its users can use the card known as FamCard to shop online or swipe it at physical stores for their purchases.
The company said it would use the funding to strengthen its technology infrastructure and increase the engineering team for faster growth. The company has partnered with an Indian bank IDFC First Bank to facilitate digital payments using the company-issued card. Apart from using the card for payments, its app can also be used for transactions using UPI (Unified Payments Interface), an instant payment tool.
“Most of the products built in India are focused on adults, and there’s nothing out there for teenagers between the age of 12 and 18 years. [Generation] Z expects a combination of something cool, trustworthy, and social, and that’s the sweet spot we are working day and night to cater to,” Taneja said in a statement.
According to the company, FamCard can be supervised by the parents to learn about their children’s spending behavior. Instead of giving cash for pocket money they can now deposit it in their children’s FamPay account.
“We believe that empowering teenagers with their own accounts can create a new network of users and open numerous opportunities in the market,” Jain said.
A handful of early-stage fintech companies have raised money this year. DotPe raised USD 8 million in seed funding led by PayU and Fosun RZ Capital. Earlier this month, Karbon Card also raised USD 2 million in seed funding from angel investors such as Kunal Shah, Amrish Rau, and Jupiter founder Jitendra Gupta. Two neo-banking startups EpiFi and P10 Bank also raised money this year.