Fintech startup Kiwi has raised $24 million in a funding round led by Singapore-based Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India. Existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network and Stellaris Venture Partners also participated in the round.
The company plans to use the fresh capital to launch credit lines on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) within the next six months, a product that has been in the works since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave its approval in September 2023.
Kiwi currently issues RuPay credit cards in partnership with Yes Bank and AU Small Finance Bank, enabling consumers to make payments via UPI, India’s most widely used retail payment mode. Alongside this, the company now plans to offer credit lines on UPI in partnership with banks. This feature will allow users to access pre-approved credit limits directly through their UPI-enabled savings accounts, combining the ease of UPI with the flexibility of short-term credit.
ET reported on August 18 that after much delay, banks are finally beginning to warm up to the credit line product on UPI. The new regulatory nod and growing bank participation has opened up opportunities for fintechs like Kiwi to build products on top of UPI.
“The new capital will help us focus on and build the products we’ve been planning, in addition to what we have already built. Credit line on UPI is something we’re bullish on. UPI on credit cards we have already launched, and we are scaling that business,” said Anup Agarwal, cofounder of Kiwi.
Founded in 2022 by ex-bankers Agarwal, Siddharth Mehta and Mohit Bedi, Kiwi has raised $43 million across three equity funding rounds. Since its launch in 2023, the company said it has issued 200,000 RuPay credit cards through its platform and currently processes over 5 million merchant transactions every month across 600 cities in India.
Agarwal said Indian consumers are opening up to the idea of using credit instruments through UPI, and Kiwi wants to capture this shift. “The opportunity to link credit with UPI is massive. We believe it has the potential to change consumer behaviour, just as UPI itself transformed digital payments in India,” he added.
“Credit cards on UPI marry UPI’s deep penetration with India’s growing demand for card and credit products,” said Kanika Mayar, partner at Vertex Ventures SEA and India, in a statement.
The rapid adoption of UPI with around 19 billion monthly transactions has attracted investor attention to the sector. Global and domestic investors are betting that the enablement of credit on top of UPI could open up a new growth wave in India’s digital payments ecosystem.
In April this year, Bengaluru-based Scapia raised $40 million from Peak XV Partners and others. Scapia also offers RuPay credit cards with UPI integration, with a specific focus on the travel segment. This underlines the growing investor appetite for fintechs building credit products on top of UPI.
The company plans to use the fresh capital to launch credit lines on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) within the next six months, a product that has been in the works since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave its approval in September 2023.
Kiwi currently issues RuPay credit cards in partnership with Yes Bank and AU Small Finance Bank, enabling consumers to make payments via UPI, India’s most widely used retail payment mode. Alongside this, the company now plans to offer credit lines on UPI in partnership with banks. This feature will allow users to access pre-approved credit limits directly through their UPI-enabled savings accounts, combining the ease of UPI with the flexibility of short-term credit.
ET reported on August 18 that after much delay, banks are finally beginning to warm up to the credit line product on UPI. The new regulatory nod and growing bank participation has opened up opportunities for fintechs like Kiwi to build products on top of UPI.
“The new capital will help us focus on and build the products we’ve been planning, in addition to what we have already built. Credit line on UPI is something we’re bullish on. UPI on credit cards we have already launched, and we are scaling that business,” said Anup Agarwal, cofounder of Kiwi.
Founded in 2022 by ex-bankers Agarwal, Siddharth Mehta and Mohit Bedi, Kiwi has raised $43 million across three equity funding rounds. Since its launch in 2023, the company said it has issued 200,000 RuPay credit cards through its platform and currently processes over 5 million merchant transactions every month across 600 cities in India.
Agarwal said Indian consumers are opening up to the idea of using credit instruments through UPI, and Kiwi wants to capture this shift. “The opportunity to link credit with UPI is massive. We believe it has the potential to change consumer behaviour, just as UPI itself transformed digital payments in India,” he added.
“Credit cards on UPI marry UPI’s deep penetration with India’s growing demand for card and credit products,” said Kanika Mayar, partner at Vertex Ventures SEA and India, in a statement.
The rapid adoption of UPI with around 19 billion monthly transactions has attracted investor attention to the sector. Global and domestic investors are betting that the enablement of credit on top of UPI could open up a new growth wave in India’s digital payments ecosystem.
In April this year, Bengaluru-based Scapia raised $40 million from Peak XV Partners and others. Scapia also offers RuPay credit cards with UPI integration, with a specific focus on the travel segment. This underlines the growing investor appetite for fintechs building credit products on top of UPI.
