Decoding Tiger Global-backed Jar’s Series B round

Gold savings platform Jar recently announced a $22.6 million Series B funding round led by its existing investor Tiger Global. While the Bengaluru-based company was gunning for a larger cheque in this round, it had to settle for a lesser amount amidst global slowdown and tepid funding environment.

At the time of the announcement, Jar did not disclose crucial details such as round break up, shareholding and valuation. Fintrackr has decoded these numbers through the company’s regulatory filings available with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

The board at Jar has passed a special resolution to issue 1,480 Series B compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) at an issue price of Rs 12,10,925.72 per share to raise Rs 179.21 crore or close to $23 million, filings show.

Tiger Global has spearheaded the funding round with Rs 39.72 crore or $5 million followed by Rocketship.vc and Unitary Fund which infused Rs 23.86 crore ($3 million) each. It’s worth noting that this was probably one of the smallest cheques invested by Tiger as a lead investor in any Indian startup. Even as the fund played a pivotal role in churning 22 unicorns in 2021 and seven in 2022 so far.

Kube Opportunities (Kube Capital), Third Prime and Eximius Ventures invested Rs 19.86 crore ($2.5 million), Rs 15.86 crore ($2 million) and Rs 7.99 crore ($1 million) respectively. Staenberg Venture Partners (SPV), Folius Ventures, Mauryan First and others put in the remaining sum.

As per Fintrackr’s estimates, Jar has been valued at around $325 million after the allotment of the Series B round. As of now, it has raised nearly $60 million including a $32 million round in February this year.

Now Tiger Global will hold 9.9% in the company while promoters of the company: Nishchay AG and Misbah Ashraf jointly command 44% stake. The complete shareholding pattern of the company can be seen below:

Almost 20 months old Jar allows users to invest as low as Re 1 in digital gold and investors on the platform can convert their digital gold to physical gold anytime in the form of coins or jewellery with the help of the company’s partners.

According to the company, it allows withdrawals after 24 hours of investment and there is no minimum lock-in period. The feature is powered by SafeGold and the gold bought via the platform is backed by the RBI-regulated IDBI Bank.