Walrus Cofounders – Nakul Kelkar, Bhagaban Behera, Sriharsha Setty
In India, there is a growing problem of adults becoming financially dependent on their parents. As per a recent HSBC report, 55 per cent of parents still provide financial support to their adult children.
This practice is viewed as common because most adults in India only learn to become financially responsible in the later stages of their lives.
“When you are young, a lot of your decisions get taken by the parents which leads to a lot of problems, especially in India. For example, when you get your first job and start earning, you don’t know what to do with your salary. People also really think about financial planning only in their late 20’s,” said entrepreneur Bhagaban Behera.
“A 15-year-old today is quite independent and ambitious. He or she wants to follow his or her own career choices and make own decisions. He/she no longer wants to be under the parents and we feel that money plays a big role in this independence,” he added.
Behera sensed an opportunity here and he, along with Sriharsha Setty and Nakul Kelkar, started Walrus, a neobank that helps teenagers manage their pocket money.
The startup’s mission is to build a system where a child can get his/her financial independence at a very young age through savings and investment.
From banking to entrepreneurship
Behera realised the importance of good money management skills only after he switched his lucrative banking job to become an entrepreneur.
“I started my career as a banker in Singapore. Since I was earning considerably, I was not concerned about saving, investing and budgeting because there was enough money for everything,” he shared.
“When I made the shift to become a founder, my income naturally decreased and expenses increased, and there was a need to manage the business savings. So when I ran out of savings, it occurred to me that I didn’t plan well for it,” he said sharing the story behind the startup.
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Prior to Walrus, Behera has already been the startup founder of an AI-based Virtual Digital Assistant solutions called Monk.
How it works
Walrus operates as a payments platform where parents can add money on app for their children and put certain controls like spending limit. There are functionalities to set budgets. For example, a child can budget for his food and transport.
Behera says that by setting budgets, children do not need to constantly go to their parents and ask them to buy them what they want.
“For example, if a child wants to buy a camera, he can save up for it and then plan to use the savings to purchase it within a certain period. When you are using cash, you don’t have an account of how much money you are spending. But when you are using a digital platform, you know how much money you spend and on what. This helps develop a habit of financial accountability,” he said.
Other than that the founders are also planning to add a feature in the future to help users invest in mutual funds.
But it does not want to be just a payment and banking app, which is why the founders have built a community around teens who, the founder terms, as “the aspirational children who want to go one mile more than the normal child”.
The app does this by organising events where they bring in successful investors, counsellors and entrepreneurs to help children benefit and build a perspective around becoming financially independent.
The teen-centred app even has an exclusive community page where it lets users create campaigns and designs for the application.
Behera recalls the idea of Monday quizzes which was suggested to them by the users and is now a popular feature within the app. By taking ideas from Gen Z’s themselves, Walrus manages to keep its customers more engaged.
Right now, the app is only available in India on the Google Play Store and plans to launch the iOS version in October this year.
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Image Credit: Walrus
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