Citrus Pay co-founder gets into mutual funds with Cube Wealth

Over two years after carving out of mobile payments service Citrus, Satyen Kothari’s Cube has re-launched itself as a wealth creation and management platform—one could invest in mutual funds, track investment, and get access to wealth advisors on its revamped mobile app.

The app, called Cube Wealth, is following a trend of companies offering investment options on mobile apps to tech-savvy Indian customers. Apps such as ETMoney, Fund Easy, and new entrants such as Angel Broking’s Angel Bee are aggressively wooing young customers into the mutual fund space.

The new version of the app, which was launched on Thursday, also provides customers with mutual fund options from the U.S. and China, says the company. The app will remain open to new members till June 5, after which an invitation is needed to join. The app also has a new asset class: gold. Payment service apps such as Paytm and PhonePe offer gold investment opportunities.

In a statement released on Thursday, the management said the app saw a positive response from early invite members, who went on to deposit crores during the pre-launch phase. Fortune India could not independently verify the claim. At the time of filing this story, the app had 5 lakh downloads on Play Store.

Kothari, one of the co-founders of Citrus Payments, carved out the company’s mobile payments app, Cube, into a separate entity in 2015. Now, with an eye on rising interest in mutual fund investments, Kothari has revamped Cube as Cube Wealth.

Cube Wealth, in a statement, said it sees huge market opportunity going forward, as individual investors have expanded their portfolio to include diverse financial instruments like mutual fund and other equity linked schemes.

“We have spent a lot of time understanding the Indian professional’s problem around money and wealth creation, and have built the simplest and best service ever seen to simplify all the work, while still giving the user full control,” Kothari said.

Mutual fund investments have seen huge growth in India, with the assets under management (AUM) growing 200%, from 7 lakh crore as on March 31, 2013, to 22 lakh crore as on February 2018, according to data from Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).