Fintech start-up Uni has raised $70 million in Series A round from General Catalyst.
The round also saw participation from Eight Roads Ventures, Elevation Capital, Arbor Ventures, Lightspeed and Accel. The company will use these funds to scale up its team, launch new products and invest in technology.
Uni was founded by Nitin Gupta, Prateek Jindal, and Laxmikant Vyas and has raised a total of $88.5 million in funding so far. Uni’s flagship product, the pay later card or Pay 1/3rd card was launched in June.
Pay 1/3rd card is a pay-later card, which claims to register a monthly disbursal of ₹175 crore within six months. Uni’s card splits every transaction into 1/3rd enabling consumers to pay their monthly spending in over three months. It also allows users to get 1 per cent rewards in the form of cashback if they choose to pay back in full after the usual 1-month interest-free credit period.
The card claims to be currently growing at 50 per cent month on month. The firm is targeting to achieve ₹1,500 crore monthly disbursals in the next 12-18 months. Uni is already present in 50 cities and is targeting to add 50 more cities in the next quarter.
BNPL space growing
Nitin Gupta, Founder and CEO of Uni said, “BNPL is growing at a breakneck speed in India and within BNPL we are seeing that the biggest potential lies in the Pay1/3rd category and we are leading this space with our innovative product and customer experience. We are delighted to have some of the best investors in the world partnering with us as we gear up for our next phase of growth.”
Alex Tran, Managing Director at General Catalyst, said, “There are few countries in the world where the opportunity for credit expansion is as massive as in India, and we believe some iconic companies will be built to capture this opportunity in the next decade. We are excited to back a team that is world-class on credit, risk, and payments while also being hyper-focused on product and customer delight.”
Consulting firm RedSeer estimates that the BNPL market in India will grow to $45-50 billion by 2026 from the current market size of $3-3.5 billion. The number of BNPL customers is also expected to rise to 80-100 million from the current number of 10-15 million customers.