Fintech Startup Kiwi Bags $6 Mn To Offer Credit On UPI Service

Credit card management solutions startup Kiwi has bagged $6 Mn in a pre-seed funding round from Nexus Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, and a host of angel investors.

Siddharth Mehta (ex-CEO, Freecharge), Mohit Bedi (ex-Axis Bank & PayU), and Anup Agrawal (ex-business head, LazyPay) have launched Kiwi, which is a mobile app platform to make payments either through credit cards or directly from accounts. The startup claims to be the first app to be offering ‘Credit on UPI’ service by issuing RuPay Cards in partnership with banks.

The app is expected to go live by mid May but the website is ready for users to register and join the waitlist.

Commenting on digital transaction vs credit card access in India, Anup Agarwal told Inc42 that though digital transactions have grown well over the last five years, not every Indian has access to credit cards. So, Kiwi is looking forward to filling up that vacant space in the Indian fintech ecosystem.

Agarwal furthered, “The funds will be used for product marketing and analysing where we stand in the whole chain. Though we haven’t set any target for this financial year, we expect to onboard at least 2 Mn users in the next eighteen months.”

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently approved linking RuPay Credit Cards to UPI, To enable Kiwi users to avail this benefit, the startup will offer RuPay credit cards to users. 

Using Kiwi, users will be able to avail ‘Credit on UPI’ service at both offline and online stores. The credit cards offered by Kiwi will also allow users with facilities such as blocking cards, increasing limits, and making card payments while collecting rewards on every transaction. 

Talking about the fintech ecosystem of India and the competition, Agarwal stated that in a market like this, competition is bound to be stiff. However, increasing competition shows better prospects for any product in the market. However, what makes a product different from other existing similar products are the problems that Kiwi is addressing, as business success is determined by proper planning and expertise.

According to Agarwal, Kiwi is not considering funding crunch a big challenge for the fintech industry. 

Looking at the Inc42’s State Of Indian Fintech Report Q1 2023, Agarwal’s words seem to be true. The report found that the Indian fintech market may rise to $2.1 Tn by 2030. Even amid the funding crunch, the Indian fintech startups received $4.8 Bn in 2022.

In the fintech space, Mumbai-based Fino Payments Bank has announced a 52.3% year-on-year (YoY) increase in its net profit for FY23. Further, the startup’s profit after tax (PAT) during the year stood at INR 65.08 Cr against INR 42.74 Cr in FY22. 

Yet another Indian fintech giant BharatPe has completed the acquisition of a 51% stake in Mumbai based non-banking financial company Trillion Loans.

Pine Labs, ZestMoney, CRED are some other Indian startups operating in this sector.