Singapore-Rooted Fintech Volopay Marks India Foray After Raising $29 Mn In Series A Funding

Singapore-based fintech startup, Volopay, has raised $29 Mn in a Series A funding round led by Winklewoss twins and an unnamed global decacorn. The newly infused capital will be a mix of equity and debt as informed by the fintech.

The investment round also saw participation from institutional investors JAM Fund, Accial Capital, Rapyd Ventures, Antler Global and VentureSouq. A slew of individual investors also participated in the round, including Jeffrey Cruttenden, Pine Labs’ Amrish Rau and Jupiter’s Jitendra Gupta

This new infusion of capital will enable the startup to focus on forthcoming market launches. The proceeds from the funding will also be used to build new technologies to complement the existing product line. The funding will also be used by Volopay to ramp up hiring for key positions. 

Volopay cofounder Rajith Shaji, said, “We are building a control centre for modern companies fostartup all their financial management needs. Our platform is as easy and seamless to use for a 5-person company, as it is for a 500-person company. We want to take our vision of a unified spend management platform to all companies across the world.”

Echoing the sentiment, JAM Fund’s Justin Mateen said, “We’ve known and worked closely with Volopay’s amazing team since the pre-seed stage. Given the strong growth momentum in the business, single stack scalable product across multiple jurisdictions, coupled with global opportunity in spend management, they have excited us to double down and lead the Series A round. We are delighted to work with a pioneer in this sector and assist them in reaching new heights.”

The India Foray

Volopay is currently available in Singapore and Australia, and has unveiled plans to expand to new territories in the near future. The startup aims to launch its India arm by this year itself.

Volopay founding member Rohit Bhageria told Inc42 that the startup plans to launch its India arm by April this year. He further added that almost 60-70% of the work has already been completed. 

Bhageria also stated that the startup has already tied with a major Indian fintech firm to launch its services in India. However, the startup refused to name the firm, citing confidential company details.

Bhageria also told this publication that Volopay aims to launch a single-stack, scalable and customisable solution for its Indian clients. 

On Volopay’s India foray, Bhageria said that the startup aims to capture trade volumes of major and mid-sized companies in six major commercial hubs of India. He also added that the startup would also expand to other Tier-2 cities such as Jaipur in the near future. 

The Disrupter?

Founded in 2019 by Rajesh Raikwar and Rajith Shaji, Volopay offers its clients a one stop solution for their financial management needs without being bound by the limitations of a traditional bank. 

One of the biggest draws of the startup is its multi-currency wallet. SMEs, with global clients, face a slew of issues including high foreign exchange rates. 

Here is where Volopay comes into the picture. It issues prepaid multi-currency corporate cards for its clients in their local currencies and offers international bank transfers with low foreign exchange rates and transaction fees. Volopay also provides a uniform platform to access all spend data. 

With this announcement, Volopay has raised close to $31.4 Mn since its launch. The startup had raised $2.1 Mn in seed funding last January led by Tinder founder Justin Mateen and other institutional investors including Soma Capital, CP Ventures, Y Combinator, VentureSouq,among others

Volopay has grown exponentially in the last couple of years with Bhageria estimating that the startup would easily outgrow its 2021 figures. 

Bhageria told Inc42 that Volopay’s payment volumes vis-a-vis card spends grew 91% month-on-month (MoM) since its seed funding, adding that the startup clocked a revenue growth of 42% MoM during the same period.

Add to this, the startup has more than 150 employees across the Asia Pacific region. Volopay’s clientele includes CoinDCX, Livspace, MPL, InVideo, and MX Media.

The Indian Market Challenges

India is a vibrant market and as such, one size fits all strategy doesn’t always work here.  This, Bhageria told Inc42, was one of the biggest challenges facing the startup. He also added that it had devised a way to integrate Volopay with all major accounting softwares and to make a single-stack solution that was workable across different markets.

The startup also faces back-end infrastructure challenges, especially in the high volume Indian market. Add to this, third-party financial services platforms tend to be inconsistent and could fall flat during a black swan event. In order to address this, the startup claims that it is building its own infrastructure and applying for financial licences in each of these newer markets. 

Speaking about the future of the fintech landscape, Bhageria said that the sector was heading towards consolidation, and could see 5-6 players dominating the market. He also said that the current startup wave in the SaaS fintech sector was reminiscent of the post-liberalisation era and will see a major boom in the coming years.

Interestingly, Indian fintech startups raised close to $8 Bn across 280 funding deals last year, a record number. An Inc42 analysis also found that India’s overall fintech market opportunity was estimated to be $1.3 Tn by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 31% during 2021-2025.

Earlier this month, Chennai-based subscription management unicorn, Chargebee, acquired collections management platform, numberz. This was preceded by NCR-based SaaS startup BiteSpeed raising $1.9 Mn in seed funding led by Sequoia India’s Surge. Add to this, AI-powered SaaS startup Actyv.ai, also secured $5 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round from Dubai-based 1Digi Investment management, earlier this month. 

This reflects an overall positive sentiment in the sector and points to the overall innovative spirit of Indian-origin entrepreneurs. With competition intensifying, the startups need to continue innovating and Volopay seems to be just on the path towards it.