Matrix, Sequoia Lead $4.5 Mn Funding Round In Fintech Startup FPL Tech

First Principle Labs Technologies (FPL Tech) has reportedly raised $4.5 Mn seed funding from marquee investors such as Matrix Partners and Sequoia India. The fresh funds will reportedly be used to strengthen the company’s product offering, team expansion and customer acquisition, according to a report in ET. 

Pune-based FPL Tech currently has a free credit scoring and monitoring app called OneScore and now aims to launch consumer credit cards through bank partnerships. “We have one lakh users of the OneScore app already, and we will target them first with our product,” FPL Tech cofounder Anurag Sinha reportedly said.

“We believe there are another 60-65 Mn customers who have a good credit score who have taken loans and repaid in the past but do not have a credit card; we can cater to that market,” he added. 

“In a market as crowded as the financial services space with a plethora of services and products to choose from, FPL breaks through the clutter with a simplified and streamlined approach to rebuild the credit and payments platform with a unique model that leverages tech and over-weighs on data security,” said Rajat Agarwal, director, Matrix Partners India.

FPL Tech was founded by Anurag, Rupesh Kumar, and Vibhav Hathi in September 2018. With the launch of consumer credit cards, FPL Tech claims to disrupt the market by making agents or sales marketing professionals obsolete in the process, the report added. 

Credit Card Market In India

Currently, the credit card market in India is dominated by HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Citibank. In February 2019, a total of 46.1 Mn credit cards were in operation in India, with nearly 9.13 Mn credit cards and 89.11 Mn debit cards added in one year.

Many tech majors in India have also started entering the credit card market in India. Latest entrants in the space include telemedicine startup Practo, which has partnered with RBL Bank to launch a co-branded health-centric card – RBL Bank Practo Plus, earlier this month. Some of the benefits include unlimited online consultations with doctors 24×7,  One free full-body health check-up and for every INR 100 spent on this card, cardholder earns one unit of Practo HealthCash.

Further, Walmart-owned ecommerce player Flipkart has also ventured into fintech services with the launch of a co-branded credit card. Flipkart claims to offer customers benefits such as unlimited cashback and discounts on all spends, online and offline. 

Ride-hailing major Ola has also launched an Ola Money-SBI Credit Card to add to its many offerings related to payments and digital transactions. In May, digital payments company Paytm too had ventured into the credit card business in a partnership with Citibank. Paytm First Card offers 1% universal unlimited cashback and has no restrictions on rewards for any transaction. In addition to these, smartphone maker Apple and global ecommerce giant Amazon have also launched credit cards in India.