Fintech firm Tortoise raises undisclosed funding from cofounders of Swiggy, ZestMoney

• ByStartupStory     |    September 1, 2022

Tortoise, a platform that rewards consumers for saving money for purchases, has acquired an unknown amount of financing in a mentors’ round from Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and CEO of Swiggy, and Lizzie Chapman, co-founder and CEO of fintech ZestMoney.

“I am pleased to be helping a startup who is coming from the ZestMoney family,” said Lizzie Chapman, co-founder of ZestMoney. “I wish Nikhil and the Tortoise team all the best as they work alongside Zest to make life cheaper for Indians.” The Save Now Buy Later (SNBL) startup received $2.3 million in venture funding earlier this year from Vertex Ventures, a subsidiary of global investment firm Temasek.

The latest round is a “mentors round,” which is an extension of the initial investment round as the firm attracts two highly strategic investors. Angelcheckswill founders will serve as investors to help Tortoise strategize a faster growth strategy. “This round is our Mentors Round, where we are raising angel checks from category-defining giants like Lizzie and Sriharsha and hope a few more such visionaries will join in,” said Tortoise co-founder Vardhan Koshal. “We are well capitalized from our Seed round, so access to such inspiring leaders is more important than money.”

Vardhan Koshal and Surya Harsha Nunnaguppala co-founded Tortoise in 2020. Nikhil Joy, a former vice president at ZestMoney, has joined the Tortoise Team as a co-founder. Joy is a fintech product leader who was previously responsible for developing products and growing a consumer loan startup.

Tortoise encourages consumers to save for significant purchases and pays them for doing so. Inspired by Tanishq’s Golden Harvest Scheme, the savings plan includes weekly and monthly savings programs ranging from a few months to a year. In this concept, consumers can make tiny deposits on the Tortoise app for a certain product over a few months to a year and then use those to buy the thing with a guaranteed cashback of up to $10,000.

“Consumerism in India is on the rise, as is consumer yearning to better their lifestyles,” Vardhan stated. However, not all customers want or can pay for large tickets in advance. Aside from that, over 93 percent of Indians do not have access to formal credit, and in such cases, SNBL is the greatest option.” SNBL is gaining traction not only in India but also in western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.

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