Escrow Banking Startup Castler Raises $5 Mn To Solve Complex Transaction Flows

Escrow banking platform Castler has raised $5 Mn in a Pre-Series A round led by Capital 2B (an Info Edge fund) and IIFL Fintech Fund. Other investors including Stride Ventures & Piper Serica also participated in the round along with returning investors Zerodha, Venture Catalysts, 9Unicorns, and FAAD Network.  

Castle has stated that the funds will be used to expand both domestic and global businesses by increasing the escrow product portfolio. It also aims to expand its banking partnerships to 25 banks and grow its business 10x over the next couple of years.  

Since its inception in 2021 by Dinesh Kumar, Vineet Kumar Singh and Vineet Singh, Castler has been serving as middle-ware between banks and enterprises through its Escrow Banking Stack. With this, it aims to solve the problems of ever-changing business and revenue models, complex transaction flows, source of money, identity verification, fraud management and customer-consumer protection. 

According to Castler, the startup is associated with 10 banking partners, offers escrow services to more than 500 enterprises and manages over INR 5000 Cr transactions every month. 

Commenting on the funds raised, Vineet Singh, cofounder & CEO, Castler said, “Trust is the most important digital currency and Castler is building the epitome of Trust -as-a-Service. Our astronomic growth, achieved with a team of just 20 people, is a testament to the strength and capabilities of our unique digital escrow product.”

Prior to this, the startup claims to have raised $1.5 Mn from Zerodha, Venture Catalysts, 9Unicorns, FAAD Network, Lets Venture, and AngelList.

The founders aim to operate the startup on the pillars of good governance and responsible execution. Castler recently appointed Kumar Amit, ex-VP Razorpay as cofounder & COO  towards its endeavor of scaling the business.

In the digital lending business, the Indian fintech sector has seen an uptick during 2022. Addressing the Inc42 Fintech Summit 2022, Indifi cofounder and CEO Alok Mittal said, “Collaboration between banks and fintech players can boost credit access to the underserved segment and SMEs because 75% of MSME lending in the country still is led by banks.”

Overall, the Indian fintech startups have been growing rapidly in cross border businesses as the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) started pushing for acceptance of UPI services in foreign countries. Recently, Paytm announced its plans to launch UPI International and initiate international transitions on the platform.

Inc42 found that the Indian fintech market is expected to be worth $2.1 Tn by 2030, out of which digital lending is the fastest growing sector. 

ZestMoney, Fino Payments Bank, Jupiter, etc are some popular fintech startups operating in India.