Jar, an Indian fintech startup that allows users to invest in gold, has turned profitable by helping millions of first-time savers use its app to build digital gold holdings. While many consumer fintechs focus on affluent urban users or credit products, Jar has gained traction by offering a culturally familiar asset — gold — as a low-barrier entry point to saving. The startup targets low- to middle-income users —a segment often underserved by traditional financial institutions—by allowing them to save in gold for as little as ₹10 (about $0.11) a day. That strategy has helped Jar reach over 35 million registered users across 12,000 zip codes, co-founder and CEO Nishchay AG said. About 60% of users are from India’s smaller cities and towns (known as tier-2 and tier-3 towns), and more than 95% are saving formally for the first time, he told. Jar’s operating revenue — primarily from its core gold-saving app — grew ninefold in fiscal year 2024, which ended in March, to ₹2.08 billion (roughly $23.6 million), as disclosed in its latest filing. More dramatically, its total revenue across all business lines during that same period jumped to ₹24.50 billion (approximately $279.3 million), representing a 49-fold jump from ₹500 million ($5.7 million) in the previous financial year (FY24). This total revenue figure includes earnings from digital gold transactions, jewelry sales through its Nek platform, and fees from third-party distribution partnerships. The jewelry component is a sizable piece of this diversified approach. The platform works on a drop-shipment model with zero inventory. By controlling the entire value chain, Jar can now capture a larger share of the gold value chain and even distribute its gold through third-party platforms,including the Walmart-owned fintech firm PhonePe.