Women-focused finance app SALT pauses operations amid user acquisition challenges

Salt co-founders (L-R) Aditi Sholapurkar, Shinjini Kumar and Chaitra Chidanand.

SALT, a platform dedicated to help women manage their finances and make informed investment decisions, has paused its operations and withdrawn its 'MySalt' app from app stores. The decision comes as the company faces increasing challenges in acquiring and retaining users, leading to the suspension of its services.

“Several women widely used the application. It received a lot of love and support and was the most useful app. However, there were challenges in managing the CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost),” a source close to the development told Moneycontrol.

Sources also said that the founders are looking for a strategic investment or funding to restart the application with a similar business model.

SALT was ideated in 2020 by Chaitra Chidanand when she planned to assist women in managing their finances. During the Covid pandemic, Shinjini Kumar, the country manager of Citi’s consumer banking joined her and roped in Aditi Sholapurkar, who was the assistant general manager at Paytm Payments Bank, as a co-founder. The app had more than 70 percent female users and 30 percent male users.

“Several women benefited from the app. In fact in 2022, the firm already clocked more than 50,000 users on web. The firm was looking for a sizeable $3 million to $5 million funding to scale the application,” a second source told Moneycontrol.

In November 2022, in a conversation with Moneycontrol, the app's co-founders Kumar and Chidanand said that the web offering, which was released in May, has already clocked 70,000 users across their products.

The firm had plans to raise funds early in 2023 to reach 100,000 users. Its founders were preparing to add new products.

SALT declined to comment on the pause in operations.

SALT’s journey

The platform’s journey started with a personality test with over 500-odd women. The founders figured out that most women did not know where to start the journey.

Within three months of a customer using SALT, the firm was looking to help women configure their money system on the app. Post that, the app will automatically manage the customer’s finances.

The app was also designed to help manage interventions for emergencies, or deal with windfall gains through bonuses etc.

The company had less than 50-60 employees and most of them were placed in other firms. The users were also onboarded on other investment platforms, sources said.

SALT added digital gold and mutual funds as investment and savings options in August and November, respectively, in addition to a passbook offering that allows users to fill in their expenses and savings.

The startup had raised an undisclosed amount from investors such as 3one4 Capital, Graph Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Ulu Ventures, and angel investors as part of its seed round in 2021.

Startup shutdowns

The development comes when India’s startup ecosystem is witnessing a series of shut downs or paused operations within firms as investors have tightened their purse strings.

The number of companies that shutdown or were pushed to the brink of a shutdown, stood at 34,848 in 2023, as per Tracxn, a private markets data provider.

In 2022, there were 18,049 startups in the same category, Tracxn had said. That is out of over 1,00,000 registered startups in India, per government records.

Also Read: From GoMechanic to ZestMoney: Why thousands of startups shut shop in 2023

ZestMoney, which was valued at $450 million in September 2021, shut down operations in 2023.

Quizy and MPL-backed Striker were some companies that shut down, while others such as Fantok halted operations.

Salt app is looking for strategic investors and has told its users that it will come back with a similar business model.