ET Money
FormerlySmartspends
IndustryFinTech
Founded2015 (2015)
FounderMukesh Kalra
Headquarters
Gurgaon, Haryana
,
India
Area served
India
Key people
Mukesh Kalra (CEO)
Santosh Navlani (COO)
ProductsInsurance, SIP, Mutual funds, Loans, Cards, Fixed deposit, National Pension Scheme
AUM$3 billion (₹22,500 crores)[1]
OwnerTimes Internet
ParentBennett Coleman & Co. Ltd
Websitewww.etmoney.com

ET Money is an Indian fintech and wealth management platform owned by Times Internet, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. It was founded in 2015.[2] It offers a variety of financial products and services, including mutual funds, insurance, fixed deposits, NPS and SIPs.[3] The investments tracked and managed on the app is US$3 billion (₹22,500 crore) as of March 2022.[1]

History

ET Money was founded in 2015 by Mukesh Kalra, who earlier founded the fintech company Moneysights in 2009, which was later acquired by Times Internet in October 2014. Moneysights was backed by ex-HP and IBM executive Prasad Duvvuri, Blume Ventures and Naveen Tewari of InMobi.[2]

The app was launched as Smartspends[4] and later, it was rebranded to ET Money in October 2016.[5] The ET Money secured 2.5 million app downloads in 2017.[2] It processed over 2 crore investment orders and registered a ₹500 crore sales in the mutual fund within two years of its launch. It had more than 4 million users on its app, as reported in 2018.[3] It currently has more than 5 million app downloads on the Google Play store as of April 2022. Initially, it was conceived as a platform to help users maintain their daily and monthly spending. Later it added mutual funds and insurance products to its features.[2] It tied up with various financial services companies and banks, including Reliance Mutual Fund, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Life and RBL Bank to offer multiple products and services.[3][6][7]

In April 2021, it launched an Aadhaar-based SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) payments feature, which can be used to start a SIP online and set up automatic payments using an Aadhaar-based OTP verification.[8]

In October 2021, the company crossed the sale of ₹500 crore of mutual funds in a month and investments managed through ET Money exceeded ₹20,000 crore.[9] In March 2022, it registered a $3 billion (₹22,500 crores) of total mutual fund investments being managed on the platform. The investments completed through the app has increased from ₹832 crore in March 2019 to over ₹7,500 crore in Oct 2021, a 901% growth.[1] The company launched ET Money Genius, a premium membership service to offer personalised investing knowledge to its users, in January 2022.[10]

Features

The app offers to purchase and sell direct mutual funds at zero commission charge.[3][11] The app allows users to buy various financial products and services such as mutual funds, insurance, fixed deposits, instant loans, NPS (National Pension Scheme) and SIPs.[3] It has a feature called SmartDeposit, which is powered by Reliance Mutual Fund and it allows users to earn higher interest rate on saving account balance.[12]

The app creates a category-wise record of spending incurred by a user by connecting to the user's SMS records and fetching data on electronic transactions. It creates a financial and risk profile of the user based on the data obtained from the transaction records captured in text message alerts. It also allows users to buy life and term insurance plans, motor vehicle insurance, health insurance, gold, and mutual funds.[2] It also lets its users check their credit scores on its platform for free.[13][14]

Reception

Reviewing the app, Deepti Ratnam of BGR.in writes, ‘Packed with deep insights and fundamentals to advanced concepts of fund investing, this app helps investors develop strategies to meet their financial goals.’[11] It was awarded the 2019 Mobexx Awards under best mobile app for financial services category in 2019.[15] The app was featured by Google as a top personal finance app in 2016.[16]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Mutual Fund investments on ET Money cross $3 billion". The Economic Times. 8 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "ET Money's big billion feat". The Economic Times. 25 September 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "ETMONEY offers zero-commission MFs to app users". The Economic Times. 4 September 2018.
  4. ↑ "Times Internet launches Smartspends personal finance app". The Times of India. 6 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "Smartspends gets rebranded to ET MONEY, adds mutual fund transactions". GadgetsNow. 6 October 2016.
  6. ↑ "ET Money partners with Bajaj Finance to offer hassle-free online FDs with up to 7.35% returns". The Times of India. 6 August 2020.
  7. ↑ "ETMONEY joins forces with HDFC Life to bring India's first data-led life insurance policy for millennials". The Economic Times. 2 March 2017.
  8. ↑ "ETMONEY becomes India's first to launch Aadhaar-based SIP payments". The Times of India. 15 April 2021.
  9. ↑ "ETMONEY crosses Rs 500 cr gross mutual funds sales in a month; investments managed surpasses Rs 20,000 cr". The Times of India. 7 October 2021.
  10. ↑ "ET Money introduces new brand identity; adds personalisation to India's investments". The Times of India. 21 January 2022.
  11. 1 2 Ratlam, Deepti (26 January 2022). "Top investment apps in India in 2022: Groww, ET Money, CashRich, and more". BGR.
  12. ↑ "ETMONEY launches 'SMARTDEPOSIT' to help Indians earn upto 8% on savings account balance without much risk". Adgully. 15 December 2016.
  13. ↑ "ETMONEY rolls out free credit score for all users". The Times of India. 27 May 2019.
  14. ↑ "ETMONEY introduces seamless, instantaneous investments in NPS". The Times of India. 19 February 2020.
  15. ↑ "Mobexx Awards 2019 Winners". Adgully.com. 2019.
  16. ↑ "ETMoney launches 'SmartDeposit' to help consumers earn 7-8% interest on their savings account". The Economic Times. 15 December 2016.
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