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“Indian couples have evolved, but traditional joint accounts have not kept up,” said Coupl co-founders Srinivas Sarkar and Kushagra Manglik. The two, who met in a cohort of the Entrepreneur First Accelerator program, said that while India's banking system is relatively advanced compared to global standards, it has a strong focus on specific markets (MSME business banking, teen banking, and of course couples banking). Banking). .
“While couples have evolved over the past 20 years, we have found that banking products for couples, such as joint accounts, have simply not kept pace,” says Sarkar. Citing the example of unmarried couples who live together and manage their expenses together, he says, “Only married couples or blood relatives had access to joint accounts. Also, young couples are very reluctant to open joint accounts.'' “I felt it was difficult to do so. I had to physically visit them,” he said. When you go to a bank, you fill out a lot of paperwork, but they often refuse if your last name or address is incorrect. ” Higher minimum balances also come with the added burden of maintaining a joint account.
So, what makes this startup different from its competitors? “Coupl is launching a zero-balance digital joint account with a linked RuPay debit card that can be set up by any couple, married or unmarried. , completely solves this problem. An account can be fully set up within 60 seconds without visiting a “bank,'' says Manglik. The Silicon Valley-backed startup is also expanding its services to LGTBQ couples.
It also offers in-app payments for all household utility bills. It has electricity, gas, FASTAg, credit cards, and more, as well as budget and spending management features to help couples manage their budgets. So far, Coupl has served 12,000 couples in India across his more than 5,000 PIN codes. A whopping 40 percent of these couples were unmarried. “Our account holders are from tier 1, 2 and 3 cities and are a mix of dual-income and single-income couples,” Manglik adds.
2023 was a pivotal year for the company, which transitioned from a savings-focused neobank (helping couples save together towards a common goal) to a payments-focused neobank for couples. We have signed a new banking partnership with LivQuik and received approval to offer RuPay Platinum Card linked from RuPay to our users. He also partnered with NPCI to offer the Bharat BillPay service on the app, where he has processed over USD 1 million in transactions in just four months since its launch.
Coupl's next growth spurt will be the launch of physical debit cards in the next quarter and the launch of lending services such as credit cards and personal loans by the end of FY25. They plan to add Family Banking to their service, where older couples can add children to their accounts and easily transfer money within the family. In addition to the US market, the duo aims to explore other markets similar to India, such as the MENA market and the Southeast Asian market.
Fact sheet:
Number of promoters: 2
Number of employees: 12 people
Year of start. 2022
External investors: Y Combinator, Entrepreneur First Global Fund, UK
