Pelocal Bags $5 Mn From UNLEASH Capital, Unicorn India

SUMMARY

Pelocal aims to deploy the capital for product development, expanding the use cases and push its go-to-market strategy

The startup is a payment orchestration platform which enables large entities to process and collect payments through WhatsApp chat

The funding round comes almost a year after the startup raised $2 Mn in its seed round led by Unicorn India Ventures

Fintech startup Pelocal has raised $5 Mn (about INR 43.9 Cr) in its Series A funding round co-led by UNLEASH Capital Partners and Unicorn India Ventures. It also saw participation from angel investors.

The startup said it aims to deploy the capital for product development, expanding the use cases and push its go-to-market strategy.

The funding round comes almost a year after the startup raised $2 Mn in its seed round led by Unicorn India Ventures.

Founded in 2021 by Vivekanand Tripathi and Vikas Garg, Pelocal is a payment orchestration platform which enables large entities to process and collect payments through WhatsApp chat. It also enables payments directly via the messaging platform. Apart from integrating payment solutions with WhatsApp, the startup allows businesses to showcase their products on the messaging platform and acquire customers to drive sales.

Additionally, it helps in integrating payments gateways on websites, enabling payments through various methods such as credit card, debit card and UPI. The startup is also developing tech infrastructure products for the BFSI.

Pelocal, which featured in the November edition of Inc42’s ‘30 Startups To Watch’, claims to have more than 40 enterprise clients from across sectors and serve more than 5 Mn unique users monthly. Additionally, the startup also claims to have achieved a 6X growth in its total payment value since its last funding round and aims to achieve an ARR of $10 Mn (about INR 88 Cr) in the next 18 to 24 months.

It operates in India’s digital payments solutions space, which is growing at a rapid pace. The country’s payment segment is expected to become a $253 Bn economy by 2030.

Seeing this growth, investors are also capitalising on this opportunity. Fintech was the most funded space in H1 2025, with startups raising $1.6 Bn during the period, up 50% from $1 Bn in the same period last year.