Bengaluru Startup Walrus launches India's 1st Personalized Debit Card for Teens

With an aim to help teenagers and young adults become financially smart at an early age as well as provide them banking solutions, fintech company Walrus today announces the launch of Signature Prepaid Debit Cards for teenagers. The unique card allows users to customize their signature which later on gets printed on the card. Walrus becomes India’s first Neobank to introduce this special feature in a card. 

Issued by RBL Bank, this card is a Prepaid Card powered by Mastercard and can be used at any retail store in their neighborhood and for making online purchases at merchants like Flipkart, Amazon, etc. With these personalized cards, the users will be able to track their transactions and also temporarily lock their cards from the Walrus app when not in use or block it if it gets misplaced. The Signature card has also been enabled with features like Swipe-to-Pay to ensure faster and secure transactions.

Commenting on the launch, Bhagaban Behera, Co-Founder, and CEO of Walrus said,“We believe that every teenager is unique and has unique aspirations, and therefore it’s important to give them a card which they can personalize to their identity. Walrus Signature Card is an effort from Walrus to make Gen-Z smart with money in a cool way.”

In the present scenario, teens are forced to use cash which has a lot of hassles and is unsafe due to COVID. With an increase in Digital payments, Walrus is bridging the gap by including teenagers in a financial inclusion drive. Here they can use Walrus to load money seamlessly and use it at the merchants of their choice. Additionally, the neobank has also given them the leverage to customize their cards in terms of designing it along with adding their signatures, thus providing them ownership of the same.

For the Signature Card, Walrus has collaborated with fintech company Zeta and IDEMIA, the global leader in augmented identity and leading payment cards technology company. Walrus is amongst the first few Asian neobanks to be part of IDEMIA’s Fintech Accelerator Program.

Murali Nair, President, Banking at Zeta said, “The banking and fintech sector has been a major focus for Zeta and we are privileged to power Walrus' innovative cards for teens with innovative features like Super PIN, Card Controls and Swipe-to-Pay. As a company, Zeta is constantly innovating and introducing new products to simplify and secure digital payments across platforms. This association with Walrus is a great opportunity for Zeta to help create a versatile platform to enable neobanking more accessible for Gen-Z customers.”

Amit Kakatikar, Region Head – Payment Business at IDEMIA said, “As the first signature card designed for Teenagers in India, it is a solid affirmation of Walrus’ commitment and understanding of the needs and desires of this important customer segment. IDEMIA is thrilled to be a part of this unique personalised payment card product offering. It reaffirms our strategic focus on supporting the rapidly evolving Fintechs and neobanking ecosystem through our Fintech Accelerator Program.”

Additionally, Walrus has also introduced gamified features to help teens get smarter with money with concepts like budgeting , creating savings goals etc. Walrus users also get access to ‘Club Walrus’ which is a network for teenagers for networking amongst themselves and to explore interesting topics like entrepreneurship, building products, digital marketing from industry experts.

About Walrus

Founded in 2019 by Bhagaban Behera (CEO), Sriharsha Setty (CTO), and Nakul Kelkar (COO), Walrus is a modern-day digital-only banking platform for teenagers. It was created to provide banking facilities to teenagers and make them financially sound. The team comes with a collective experience of 40 years in leadership roles at various startups and MNCs. Walrus recently raised funding from Better Capital and reputed angel investors like Raveen Sastry [ Cofounder, Myntra ], Raghunandan G [ Ex - CEO, Taxi4Sure ]

Neobank for Teens – Walrus Raises Funding from Better Capital

The start-up launched an invite-only beta with thousands of  users on its teen-focused neobank platform and has a large & growing waitlist. 

Bengaluru based Neobank - Walrus announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding for its platform focussed on providing banking solutions for teens and young adults. The pre-seed funding round was led by Better Capital, an early backer of neobanks in India including investments in Open, Khatabook, Jupiter, Yelo and Slice.. There was also participation from seasoned angel investors including Raveen Sastry (Co-founder, Myntra), Raghunandan G (Ex-Founder and CEO of TaxiForSure) and Brijesh Thakkar among others. The company plans to utilize the funding to expand its team and enhance product features. 

Walrus is a modern day digital-only banking platform for teenagers aged 13 and upwards. Although aimed specifically at teenagers, Walrus’ services can be used by anyone up to the age of 22. The platform provides them a secure and “Gen Z-like” cool banking solution that helps them to manage their money smartly and inculcate good financial habits. Parents can use the app to transfer money to their kids instantly via UPI, who can then spend the money hassle-free. They will be able to set saving goals for their children, teach them to invest small amounts of money in SIPs and mutual funds and also teach them to budget their expenses.

Founded in 2019 by Bhagaban Behera (CEO), Sriharsha Setty (CTO) and Nakul Kelkar (COO), Walrus was set up with an aim to help teenagers and young adults develop financial literacy at an early age ultimately leading them to the path of financial #AatmaNirbharata. The team comes with a collective experience of 40 years in leadership roles at various startups and MNCs.

Speaking about its core value proposition, Bhagaban Behera CEO, Walrus said: “Financial literacy is an important aspect of life which most people learn very late in life. In a very competitive, fast paced  world, one should be taught how to calculate taxes, how to budget expenses, invest and plan for finances earlier than later. In India, we usually learn the importance of these life skills in our early or late 30s by which time most of us have already made a lot of financial mistakes. This can be a resentful experience for many people. We allow parents to educate and financially support their children in their first steps using a digital financial product. Built for the Instagram generation, Walrus is an Instagram equivalent for a bank account which is cool, new-age, intuitive and easy to use.”

Despite being born digital, there are 200 million teens in India today that don’t have access to any tool to use digital money seamlessly. Financial institutions like banks do not consider kids as an important segment as they do not have earnings and do not need to avail credit]. It’s too much of a hassle to open an account in a bank for these children. Teenagers do not need to open a bank account to use Walrus. They would be able to install the app, load money and pay any merchant via UPI QR code or using the Debit Card for e-commerce purchases. Walrus is India’s first payment instrument that allows users to make UPI Payments without linking a bank account. 

Speaking of the investment, lead investor Vaibhav Domkundwar commented, “Walrus is the biggest missing link for today’s Instagram generation in India - it puts money in the hands of the teenagers so they can feel independent, make their own choices, learn from the choices they make and grow up to be a financially educated generation. We have 200 million such teenagers who will experience money & money management in a new way with Walrus. I am excited about this opportunity and fortunate to partner with a stellar team.”

Walrus is also building a community known as ‘Club Walrus’ which is a teens-only network for networking and learning interesting things like entrepreneurship, building products, digital marketing etc. from Industry experts. 

Although the startup is in beta, it is witnessing a strong demand for its product from teenagers and is seeing a high engagement and retention amongst its thousands of  beta users and has a large & growing waitlist.