Exclusive: Fintech startup Jodo corners Rs 28.5 Cr seed capital from Matrix and SAIF

Entrepreneurship is enticing for many and sometimes it even attracts venture capitalists who usually catalyse startups from the outside. Over the past few years, we have seen several companies like Magicpin, Indifi, WMall, Frontrow and MoneyTap floated by former VCs.

On similar lines, Matrix Partners alumni Raghav Nagarajan, Atulya Bhat and Koustav Dey too plunged into entrepreneurship with Jodo. According to its website, Jodo aims to be a full-service financial services player with multiple products but currently, it lets parents pay school fees monthly instead of 2-3 instalments in a year. 

Jodo helps middle-income families manage the academic expenses of their kids. While the company is yet to get significant traction, it has raised Rs 28.5 crore in its seed funding round from Matrix Venture Partners, SAIF Partners and a clutch of angel investors. 

Jodo has allotted 4,100 Series A CCPS at an issue price of Rs 69,562 per share to raise the capital, shows regulatory filings. As per Fintrackr’s estimate, the company has been valued around Rs 107 crore in its first institutional funding round.

Matrix and SAIf partners have invested Rs 13.9 crore each in the Bengaluru based startup and both will control 13.08% stake each in the company. Around Fifteen angel investors including Amit Rajan, Nithin Kamath (through Rainmatter Capital), Softbank’s Sarthak Misra and Kunal Shah (through QED Innovation labs) have also invested a total of Rs 70 lakhs in Jodo Pay. 

Co-founders Nagarajan, Bhat and Dey joined the list of about a dozen professionals who started their companies after stints at investment firms. Importantly, Jodo is the second venture founded by former VCs to raise capital this year. Former Lightspeed executive Ishaan Preet Singh had closed $3 million from Lightspeed and SAIF Partners for his online learning platform FrontRow in May.

Besides breaking out academic fees in monthly instalments, Jodo also helps parents to pay a subscription fee of online education products including Vedantu and Toppr. While the company is in its pre-revenue stage, Jodo would make revenue by charging a small fee for transactions.

Jodo seems to be an interesting play in the fintech space that targets to weed out the pain of paying hefty school fees for the lower-middle-class by allowing them to pay in two-three instalments. It solves the cash flow issues for low-income households which face a shortage of funds after paying a hefty sum.