News Update

Muvin, neobanking startup, reportedly shuts down its operations, as per reports


Neobanking startup Muvin has reportedly ceased operations following a directive from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) instructing the discontinuation of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in co-branding arrangements. Users received notifications stating that the “Muvin card programme has been closed,” with any available balance being migrated to the “Issuer Livquik” app. The migration process is expected to conclude by February 1, and users will be notified about the next steps to access their balances. The Muvin app is no longer available on the Google Play Store, as reported by Entrackr.
Muvin, co-founded by Vineet Gupta and Mukund Rao, served both teens and young adults through its prepaid card and mobile app. Despite raising $3 million in a pre-Series A round led by WaterBridge Ventures in January 2022, the startup faced challenges due to the RBI directive issued in June 2023. This directive mandated prepaid payment instrument (PPI) issuers to discontinue UPI services in co-branding arrangements, affecting Muvin and other platforms like DreamX (Dream11), Fampay, Akudo, and CheqUPI, which did not possess PPI licenses.
In response to the regulatory change, Muvin had to shutter its operations. Similarly, Akudo, a teenagers-focused neo-banking platform backed by Y Combinator, also halted its core UPI and card business in September the previous year. Lavika Aggarwal, Khanna, and Jagveer Gandhi founded Akudo, which offered a digital bank for teenagers and raised $4.2 million from investors such as Y Combinator, JAFCO Asia, Incubate Fund India, and AET Fund in September 2021. The closure of Muvin and Akudo’s UPI services underscores the impact of regulatory directives on neobanking platforms operating in India.

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