Tinder co-founder leads $29m round of SG fintech firm

Singapore-based fintech startup Volopay has raised US$29 million in its series A financing through a mix of equity and debt. Justin Mateen, founder of Tinder and Jam Fund, led the round.

Investors including Antler Global, Winklevoss Capital Management, and Acorns CEO Jeffrey Cruttenden also took part in the fundraise.

Volopay co-founders Rajesh Raikwar (left) and Rajith Shaji / Photo credit: Volopay

Founded in 2019, Volopay combines services such as expense approvals, corporate cards, bills payments, expense reimbursements, credit, cashback, and accounting automation into one platform. It offers a 2% cashback on all software subscriptions, hosting, and international travel through its corporate card for startups.

The latest investment comes amid a surge in funding deals in Singapore, with the total transaction value of fintech deals in the country reaching US$3.9 billion in 2021, a 59% increase from the previous year.

Volopay was founded by Rajith Shaji and Rajesh Raikwar, who were both former MoneySmart Group employees.

The fresh funds will fuel Volopay’s foray into two regions: Asia Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It aims to tackle specific problems faced by SMEs in these markets, namely high forex charges for international payments and a lack of a uniform platform to access spending data.

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“With Asia Pacific and MENA making a big wave on the global stage by churning out several unicorn-level enterprises every year, accelerating their growth requires an efficient expense management tool that is simple yet scalable,” said Raikwar.

Part of Volopay’s series A funds will also be allocated to its market launches, as well as for building new technologies to complement its existing product and developing integrations with enterprise software and project management applications. The company is also hiring “aggressively” for key positions in each of its markets.

Volopay’s clients include the likes of Funding Societies, Zipmex, MoneySmart, Smartkarma, and Austrianova.

Other investors in the round include:

• Rapyd Ventures
• Accial Capital
• Access Ventures
• VentureSouq