Gokula Krishnan Subramaniam, Founder and CEO of Vircle

1337 Ventures, through its 1337 Accelerator Fund I, announced an investment in Vircle, a Malaysian neo-banking platform focused on transforming financial literacy for children.

“Our core mission has always been to teach kids how to manage money wisely, and this investment enables us to scale our operations and expand our reach,” said Gokula Krishnan Subramaniam, Founder and CEO of Vircle, in a press statement. “With the support of 1337 Ventures & strategic guidance, we are poised to grow across Southeast Asia (SEA), helping millions of children develop critical financial skills.”

Vircle builds a child-safe financial management and pocket money platform that aims to provide parents with an app to manage all their child’s pocket money and financial learning skills at one place, both for in-school and out-of-school spending.

Designed to help children budget, save, and spend responsibly, the platform aims to bank one million children in Malaysia and expand to three million across SEA within five years.

For its school spending pocket, Vircle Club provides children a prepaid Visa card which the company said is the first with parental controls and child safe protection.

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Vircle also partners with major private and international schools by providing cashless school platforms and has recently partnered with U Mobile to pilot cashless payments in Malaysian public schools.

Launched in January 2022, the 1337 Accelerator Fund I addresses the critical gap in early-stage funding for Malaysian startups.

Managed by 1337 Ventures in collaboration with seasoned investors such as Asgari Stephens and Suresh Thiru (ex-COO of JobStreet), the fund aims to provide early-stage startups with critical capital, mentorship, and strategic support. It runs its signature accelerator programme, Alpha Startups.

1337 Ventures also introduced the 1337 Capital Fund 1 in 2024 to support “high-growth startups that create lasting impact and deliver long-term value across diverse sectors.”

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Image Credit: 1337 Ventures