Open Finance Startup Upswing Raises $4 Mn From QED Investors

Upswing Financial Technologies, an open finance B2B ecosystem enabler, has raised $4 Mn from marquee global fund QED Investors and a clutch of other fintech founders.

The funding will also be used to help fintechs and consumer tech players offer financial services seamlessly.

QED, a fintech-focused fund backed 25 unicorns globally including names such as Nubank, Credit Karma and SoFi. Based in Alexandria, QED was founded by Nigel Morris and Frank Rotman in 2007. 

Its investors are focused on disruptive financial services companies in the US, the UK and Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

Based in Mumbai, Upswing was founded by ex-bankers Anupam Bagchi and Nihar Gupta in 2021. Prior to Upswing, both were senior career bankers with institutions including Kotak, Axis, Standard Chartered and NPCI. They also helped build neobank Jupiter in their leadership roles.

Sharing details about Upswing and its services, cofounder Anupam Bagchi, said “Upswing’s open finance-as-a-service platform is highly customisable, simple and modular and will significantly reduce the integration efforts of consumer tech players to launch financial products like savings accounts, deposits and lending services.”

At present, consumers would opt to access their financial services from any digital interface, which may necessarily not belong to a bank, said Bagchi.

“In the coming decade, consumer companies will ubiquitously offer banking and financial products. Upswing will be a vital ecosystem player providing consumer-centric solutions as well as the right compliance and security infrastructure,” said Sandeep Patil, partner and head of Asia at QED Investors.

The round also saw participation from Better Capital, Amara VC, Multiply Ventures, Capier Investments, Utsav Somani from AngelList.

Leading fintech founders such as Kunal Shah of CRED; Jiten Gupta of Jupiter; Rajan Bajaj of slice; Lalit Keshre of Groww; Anurag Sinha of One Card; Shivashish Chatterjee of DMI Finance, Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal, Sumit Gwalani and Sujith Narayanan of Epifi also participated in the round.

Meanwhile, fintech (financial technology) startups have recently been in news either for securing funds from investors or going for acquisitions. For instance, fintech unicorn Perfios would acquire Karza Technologies for more than $80 Mn. 

Mosambee had acquired BNPL-focused fintech startup Benow recently. On February 23, Xoxoday secured $30 Mn from Giift, backed by Apis Partners LLP.

Likewise, on February 18, Propelld had raised $35 Mn in Series B funding led by WestBridge Capital. Last month, Kissht too had raised $13.2 Mn in funding led by Trifecta Capital and Northern Arc.

Further, India’s overall fintech market opportunity is estimated to be $1.3 Tn by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 31% during 2021-2025. Of this, lending tech is likely to account for 47% ($616 Bn), followed by insurtech at 26% ($339 Bn) and digital payments at 16% ($208 Bn).