Spenny YC Application

Winter 2020Active

Spenny went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2020 batch as a Fintech company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Winter 2020
Industry: FintechConsumer Finance
Team size: 2
Status: Active
Launched: 2020

Founders

Gaurav AroraFounder

What Spenny does

Spenny is the Acorns for India. Every time a user make any digital transaction, we round off the amount to the nearest 10 INR and invest it for them into a diversified portfolio, automatically. 400M millennials in India don't invest because they don't have enough time, knowledge or access to large capital. With Spenny, they just connect the card and invest every time they spend. We're growing 67% WoW since launch, with 3,000+ users and $15,000 in AUM. Indians put $500Bn into their bank accounts annually. We charge 1.75% of the AUM for investments. That's a direct ~$9Bn market in India alone. Potentially every time a user makes a transaction, we make money. And in that sense, the timing for Spenny couldn't have been better: 1 Trillion+ transactions are expected in 2021 because of factors like Whatsapp launching its P2P payments in India for its 400M users. And the emergence of UPI means every Indian has a virtual bank account now. More interesting revenue models develop from the transaction data insights of our users. We analyse the rich data to A) up-sell more financial products like insurance etc., and B) create brand loyalty programs & partnerships. We acquire customers at minimal CAC by bank partnerships. We leverage the banks' existing users, by integrating with their mobile app. In turn, we invest into their mutual funds. Our long-term vision is to become a one-stop asset management solution for millennials.

Spenny's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Spenny, Winter 2020 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Spenny

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Acorns for India: round-up investing automatically

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We built Spenny to automatically invest users' spare change from digital transactions in India. Every time a user spends digitally, we round up the transaction to the nearest 10 INR and invest the difference in a diversified portfolio, making investing effortless for millennials who don't have the time or knowledge to manage investing themselves.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We currently live in Bengaluru, KA, India, and plan to keep the company based there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

India is where the problem exists: 400M millennials don't invest due to barriers like lack of time, knowledge, and access. Bengaluru is our home and a fintech hub. Staying here keeps us close to regulators, banks, and users.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real Spenny YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Spenny's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Spenny would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.