Ex-Ola and PayU exec’s fintech firm bags $18.5m seed money from Lightspeed, Accel

India-based fintech startup Uni, currently in stealth mode, announced that it has secured US$18.5 million in a seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Accel. The company claims that it’s one of the largest seed rounds in the country.

Uni co-founder and CEO Nitin Gupta / Photo credit: Uni

Part of the fresh capital will be used to build the team. Uni will also use the funds as its working capital and to bolster its market and customer acquisition efforts, Uni founder and CEO Nitin Gupta told Tech in Asia.

What problem is it solving? “In India, the credit card is exactly the same way as it was 20 years ago. Nothing has changed,” Gupta explained.

While there are more than 100 million Indians today who pay digitally and electronically, penetration in the credit card market in India today is still low, with just 34 million credit card users having 58 million credit cards, according to the company.

Targeting the ecommerce and internet-savvy generation in India, the startup aims to bridge the gap for credit cards and make them more accessible for consumers.

He declined to disclose what Uni’s product is exactly but said it’s building a credit card product for the modern age. “When you will see our credit card, it will feel so obvious that is how a credit card should be […]” he added. “None of the existing players in the market are thinking the way we are.”

What’s the opportunity? Over the last five years, Gupta has seen a 3x acceleration of digital payment platforms, whereas the share of credit card payments has fallen drastically.

“There is an opportunity to expand the market from 58 million credit cards in India today to 200 million credit cards over the next five years by building new products,” he added.

Who are the team members? The company is co-founded by Gupta, Prateek Jindal, and Laxmikant Vyas.

With 15 years of experience, Gupta was formerly the co-founder and CEO of PayU India as well as the CEO of Ola Financial Services. Jindal, on the other hand, built OlaMoney Postpaid, while Vyas was the head of data science at Bajaj Finance.