Children's pocket money app and digital payments Junio has secured $6 million in a round headed by NB Ventures in the United Arab Emirates, with the Rajiv Dadlani Group playing a key role.

The money will be used to expand the company's personnel, roll out new product features, and scale up client acquisition initiatives, the company announced.
Junio received $2 million in seed fundraising last year from well-known angel investors such as Cred founder Kunal Shah, PolicyBazaar cofounder Yashish Dahiya, and Venture Catalysts. Last year, family offices led by the Rajiv Dadlani Group took part in the fundraising.

“We have seen huge adoption of our app ever since we launched it last year. There is a strong acceptance among the parent-children community. We are now in the process of introducing new and exciting features while focusing on developing a user-friendly product,” says Shankar Nath, cofounder, Junio.

Junio, founded in 2020 by former Paytm executives Nath and Ankit Gera, offers a'smartcard' that allows children to make both offline and online purchases.
The purpose of the New Delhi-based firm is to instil financial discipline and knowledge in children in a pleasant and practical way. Furthermore, parents have visibility into their children's spending patterns and can direct them toward early money management education.

“Shankar and Ankit have handled digital payments at scale earlier, and we are very impressed by the traction that Junio has been able to garner in a short time. The scope for digital payments by children is immense,” said Neelesh Bhatnagar, managing director of NB Ventures.

Junio's core user base is now comprised of youngsters and teens aged 10 to 16.
Junio is a competitor to Sequoia Capital-backed FamPay, which secured $38 million in a round led by Elevation Capital last year.