https://www.india.com/business/from-college-dropout-to-co-founder-of-rs-2463-crore-fintech-firm-all-in-a-years-work-for-bihars- misbah-ashraf-6143496/From School Dropout to Co-Founder of Rs 2,463 Crore FinTech Company: All in One Year

Born into a middle-class family in the Bihar Sharif region of Nalanda district of Bihar, Misbah found inspiration in his father to overcome the family’s difficult financial situation.

For most people, dropping out of college means an early end to future paths to success and a low-paying job to make ends meet. But there are a few, like the tech giant Microsoft founder Bill Gates and everyone’s favorite entrepreneur of all time, the late great Apple founder Steve Jobs, who created multi-billion dollar business empires after dropping out of college.

In today’s dose of inspiring stories, here we bring you a similar story from our great nation. This is the awe-inspiring journey of Bihar boy Misbah Ashraf, who co-founded a 2,483 crore FinTech company just four years after deciding to drop out of college.

‘Move fast or get knocked down’

Born into a middle-class family in the Bihar Sharif region of Nalanda district of Bihar, Misbah found inspiration to overcome the family’s dire financial situation from his father, who once gave him a valuable life lesson by teaching him to telling, “Those who walk slowly are overthrown.”

Taking the lesson to heart, Misbah made it his life goal to move fast and so decided to drop out of college to start his own business. After dropping out of college in his first year, Misbah founded a social payment company, Cibola, in September 2013 along with some of his friends from IIT-Delhi. However, the venture could not achieve much success and was closed after just over a year.

Early failures

Misbah attributes Cibola’s failure to his own market miscalculations; but not one to be bothered by failures, the young entrepreneur tried again, launching an e-commerce platform called Marsplay in August 2017.

Marsplay initially proved to be a success and quickly gained a user base of over 1 million in a short period of time. However, the company folded shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as Misbah was unable to raise more funds for the thriving startup during that uncertain period. He soon sold Marsplay to another e-commerce company, Foxy, and decided to work on something that would be more viable in the long run.

Misbah’s ‘Jar’ of gold

This is how the idea of ​​’Jar’ was born, a FinTech company that helps consumers save and invest. Misbah, a fast learner, used the experience he had gained from his previous failed ventures to make the idea behind his new venture almost foolproof. Launched in May 2021, Jar reached a staggering 18 million users within 18 months and has so far raised over $58 million in funding from global leaders like Tiger Global, Rocketship.vc and Arkam Ventures.

Jar recorded more than 300,000 trades daily and within the first year of its launch, Misbah raised a whopping $22.6 million at a massive valuation of $300 million dollars (Rs 2,463 crore), becoming one of the few companies to hit multi-million dollar deals as other start-ups began to fold due to global funding slowdowns.

Misbah is currently designated Chief Product Officer (CFO) of Jar, a company he co-founded with his friend Nishchay AG. Misbah’s monumental success has earned him worldwide acclaim as an entrepreneur and earned him a spot in Forbes’ prestigious 30 Under 30 in the Finance and Venture Capital (2023).

Prior to his entrepreneurial ventures, Misbah worked for several start-ups Pulse.qa (YC), Pursuit, Toymail (YC), and Spangle.