SUMMARY
Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, 8VC, and Section32 participated in the funding round
The fresh funds would be used to scale up Swadesh’s customer acquisition and expand its product suite of NRI-focused financial products
The neo bank helps NRI students and expats in the US to set up their secure banking infrastructure with more ease
Cross-border fintech startup Swadesh has raised $2.25 Mn in its pre-seed funding round from Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, 8VC, and Section32.
The fresh funds would be used to scale up the startup’s customer acquisition and expand its product suite of NRI-focused financial products, including NRE/NRO accounts.
Prateek Swain founded Swadesh in 2019 with an aim to help NRI students and expats in the US to set up secure banking infrastructure and initiate cross-border transfers and transactions with more ease than the traditional banking system. The neo bank claims to offer quicker cross-border transfers, custom VISA debit cards, and other services.
“Availability of funds is essential during relocation, and Swadesh is the only option that removes chance from the equation and provides a permanent banking solution that caters to the Indian diaspora,” Swain said in a statement.
Swadesh has already secured multiple banking partnerships in both the US and India to facilitate pro-consumer innovation and provide Indians equitable access to the other country’s banking system.
“Barriers to access for Indians banking in the U.S. include a lack of financial history and antecedents in the United States, unfamiliarity with banking and taxation codes especially in terms of visa or immigration status, and language barriers that can prove exclusionary to Indians,” said Swain, adding that Swadesh sidesteps such barriers to provide better banking and support.
As per the startup’s website, it has also enabled third-party integrations on its platform with Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Venmo.
As per a PwC report, the impact of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on cross-border payments is expected to be significant and similar to the impact of UPI on the domestic payments ecosystem. On the other hand, Google Pay is one of the topmost enablers of UPI transactions in the country.
The 2021 report also stated that since 2016, India’s cross-border remittances have been growing steadily at a CAGR of 8% driven by the increase in global mobility of goods and services, international travel and international workforce.
Recently, cross-border payments solutions startup PayGlocal also raised $12 Mn as part of its Series B funding round led by Tiger Global and Sequoia India.
