Women-Focused Neobanking Startup LXME Bags Seed Funding From Kalaari Capital, Others

Women-focused neobanking startup LXME has raised $1.2 Mn (INR 10 Cr) in a seed funding exercise led by Kalaari Capital via its CXXO initiative.

The round also saw participation from a host of other investors, including Singularity Ventures’ founder and chief investment officer Yash Kela; Amaya Ventures; Capri Holdings; Aditi Kothari, vice chairperson of DSP Asset Managers, Vivek Vig, Sumit Jalan and Avinash Pahuja among others.

Founded by Harvard Business School graduate Priti Rathi Gupta, the Mumbai-based startup will use the fresh capital to ramp up its market outreach and expand product offerings. 

Further, the proceeds will be deployed for brand building, user acquisition across India as well as boosting technology and product stack.

“I am beyond thrilled and deeply emotional to share a major milestone in our journey at Lxme. We have successfully closed $1.2 Mn in our first round of funding.” Gupta said in a LinkedIn post.

Founded in 2021, LXME taps into the middle-income segment and helps women control their finances better. The platform offers the usual features of a neobank, investment and insurance products, financial planning calculators and financial literacy modules. It also provides financial education to help women make better financial decisions and access a community of over 400K women.

It claims cumulative downloads of more than 100K downloads as well as 30 Mn+ content views across a community of 4K+ women. It also plans to take the number of women on its platform to more than 10 Mn in the next five years.

Vani Kola, managing director, Kalaari Capital, said, “LXME’s dedication to financial literacy and inclusion for women perfectly aligns with the core values of Kalaari and CXXO.”

Kalaari Capital launched the CXXO initiative in 2021 to educate, empower, and invest in emerging women entrepreneurs. CXXO supports female founder-CEOs through its three pillars: capital, community, and coaching.

According to the LXME and Women Money Power 2022 report, out of 560 Mn women with bank accounts, only 8 Mn invest, with just 1% doing so independently. Women face challenges in growing their wealth, accessing credit, and securing funding for ventures, and 65% lack health insurance. LXME aims to address these gaps by offering women access to a transformative financial platform. 

It competes against the likes of Groww, Zerodha, among others.

Digital lending has become a lucrative business opportunity for India’s fintech players. According to Inc42’s ‘State of Indian Fintech Report Q4 2023’, the lending tech opportunity in the country is expected to reach $1.3 Tn by 2030.