INTERVIEW: Jitendra Gupta’s Jupiter neobank is all set to foray into personal lending and mutual funds this year

• Jupiter is now looking to foray into lending as well as wealth management space.
• Jupiter is a digital banking startup that allows customers to set up their savings bank account.
• It expects to launch its wealth management solutions in the third quarter, between July to September 2022.

After opening up its digital bank to everyone last year, neobanking startup Jupiter is now looking to expand its business offering by foraying into lending as well as wealth management solutions for its existing customers.

The company’s founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Jitendra Gupta told Business Insider that Jupiter has three main areas of focus at the moment — increasing user engagement on the platform, investment options and introducing consumer lending services, which will help them monitise the platform.

Jupiter is a digital banking startup that allows customers to set up their savings bank account with in-built money management features such as real-time spending insights, tracking liquid assets across bank accounts, personalised savings goals and managing transactions.

Jupiter’s plans with lending

As far as lending is concerned, Jupiter wants to start its lending journey with a credit line offering by June this year and later expand into the personal loan domain. The option would only be open for Jupiter users, who have signed up with the platform and bank with them.

Even though the competition in the personal lending space has been quite tough with the existence of players like Paytm and Mobikwik, Jupiter is not too concerned about that as the market is quite big to accommodate several big players. “Even if you keep offering the 10-15% customers, it’s a very very sizable offering,” Gupta emphasised.

Secondly, the company plans to differentiate itself by offering credit lines and loans to existing one million customers instead of keeping the offering open to all. Gupta noted that sourcing customers from the open market is riskier since there is no other relation between the customer and lender, in their case, however, the customers are banking with them on a regular basis, which makes it easier for the company to judge their credit profiles.

Mutual Funds may be launched by September this year

On the wealth side, the company plans to start with mutual funds-type of products since it majorly serves retail investors. The company intends to offer a “boutique of investment products” according to the customer's risk profile.

“We haven't decided anything there, honestly. It is currently In the planning phase. But the roadmap is still not very clear. What I am very sure or certain [of] is that mutual funds are a no-brainer, because for any retail customer that is a first product they want to experience,” Gupta noted.

Jupiter expects to launch its wealth management solutions in the third quarter, between July to September 2022. The three-year-old company will compete with startups like Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, Paytm Money and Mobikwik in the wealth management space.

SEE ALSO
New-age startups Zomato, PolicyBazaar, Nykaa and Paytm witness sharp corrections, market cap craters by over ₹6,000 crore
RIL, TVS Motor, Voltas among stocks to watch out for on May 6
Delhivery IPO size cut down by a third due to market volatility and LIC IPO, say analysts