Group payments platform for millennials goDutch on Tuesday raised $1.7 million in seed funding. Matrix Partners India led the round with participation from Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, Soma Capital, VentureSouq and angel investors such as Justin Mateen (Co-founder, Tinder), Kevin Lin (Co-founder, Twitch), Rohan Angrish (Head, ICICI Labs) and Sumon Sadhu.
The goDutch app allows users to record, split and automatically settle group transactions such as rent payments, travel, shopping, dine out and home delivery.
Founded by IIT Bombay graduates Aniruddh Singh, Riyaz Khan and Sagar Sheth, the start-up is targeting 50 million Indians across tier 1 & 2 cities that make up $75 billion worth of group transactions annually, the company said in a statement.
Group payments currently is a multi-step process for most users with a high social barrier. Most young adults who use current transaction tracking apps struggle to settle the accounts and often receivables ramp up rapidly. goDutch aims to streamline and solve for this gap.
“Currently, for group payments people are using traditional payment apps which are designed for one to one payments. Given the frequency of shared transactions one has with their friends, it’s time to look at this problem separately. Thus, we are introducing the goDutch card through which friends can share their payments in real-time,” said Riyaz Khan, co-founder, goDutch.
The goDutch card, issued in partnership with CSB Bank, enables real-time splitting of group payments at online or offline merchant. While users can get the free virtual card instantly by signing up on the app, physical cards can be ordered through the app.
Rajat Agarwal, director at Matrix India said,” While many existing apps allow recording of group transactions, none of those enable seamless peer-to-peer settlements or real-time splitting. It’s a real pain point for young adults and if solved well, the product has the potential to grow virally. We believe that group payments can also be an exciting entry point to ultimately target group commerce and bring it online.”
