Serial entrepreneur Nitin Gupta, formerly the cofounder and CEO of PayUMoney and CEO of Ola Financial Services, has raised $18.5 Mn for his stealth mode startup Uni in what is one of the largest seed rounds in India. The funding round was led by venture capital firms Lightspeed India Partners and Accel Partners.
The startup claims that there are just 34 million credit card users having 58 million credit cards whereas there are more than 100 million Indians today who pay digitally and electronically. Focused on filling this gap, Uni will aim to target the ecommerce and internet-savvy generation in India who are looking at leading aspirational lifestyles.
Nitin Gupta, Founder and CEO, Uni said, “Over the last five years, we have witnessed a 3X acceleration of digital and electronic payment platforms. However, 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, catering to underserved customer needs and getting new customer segments.”
Bejul Somaia, Partner, Lightspeed India Partners added in the press statement, “Nitin and Uni’s team are passionate about unlocking the power of financial services for millions of Indian consumers using new tech-powered solutions. We are excited about their mission and proud to support them from day one.”
Prayank Swaroop, Partner, Accel India shared, “Credit cards is a very large and exciting market. It has over $100 billion in annual spends and still, less than 2.5 percent of the Indian population has a credit card today. The opportunity in front of us is truly immense.”
With Uni, the team aims to bridge the gap for credit cards and make them more accessible for people across different regions. The team believes that the credit card market is still under-penetrated in India.