Pockit Bags $10 Million In A Funding Round Led By Puma Private Equity

Pockit, a financial app catering to people with limited access to traditional banks, has announced raising $10 million in a funding round. The funding round brings the total funding raised by the company since its inception to around $50 million.

Pockit raises $10M in a funding round

The funding round was led by Puma Private Equity. The other investors participating in the event include The North East Development Capital Fund. The firm plans to use the amount raised in this funding round to improve its credit-building tools. It will also launch a buy now, pay later product while extending the platform into insurance, investments, and savings accounts.

“This new fundraise stands us in good stead to weather future headwinds and continue to build products to meet the needs of the market. Our challenge is to continue to grow steadily and responsibly while ensuring we’re a service that people can rely on,” said the founder and CEO of Pockit, Virraj Jatania.

Jatania said that Pockit will address the inefficiencies in cash-based economies and the risks people face in managing their finances and saving for the future. He opined that financial exclusion was a global issue and that he had opted to create a company to address the problem.

Pockit is a financial firm that serves customers across the UK. It commenced its operations as a prepaid card before expanding to offer various financial services. Customers can use the platform to send and receive money globally. Customers can also set up direct debits, deposits, and withdrawals in the 27,000 locations it has in the UK.

Solving apparent problems in the financial industry

Jatania said that most financial service providers did not extend their services to low-income and underserved communities. He noted that legacy systems do not have vulnerable customers in mind. As such, the large companies in the sector did not have much agility to launch a series of features and respond to market changes.

Pockit claims to address these communities’ issues, but not all services foster healthy financial living. While instant cash advance apps offered much convenience and security to the users, they came with some risks. The terms and conditions behind such deals were unclear, with users being prone to overdraft fees when it was time to pay back this cash.

The Pockit feature also comes with a buy now, pay later feature that is not necessarily consumer friendly. However, such features also pose a risk to users as they encourage people to spend more money than they usually would have, sinking them into debt.

However, Jatania has said that Pockit had the best interests of its users and investors in mind. He referred to a recent report that detected that nearly a third of the residents across the UK could not access current accounts, use debit cards, or access insurance or the tools crucial to boost financial stability.