Lightspeed, Accel lead $18.5 mn seed round in fintech start-up Uni

In one of the largest seed rounds in the country, VC firms Lightspeed India and Accel Partners have led a funding round of $18.5 million in fintech start-up Uni, which is currently in stealth mode.

Founded by Nitin Gupta, former CEO of PayU India and Ola Financial Services, Uni aims to bridge the gap for credit cards and make them become more accessible for consumers across different regions. 

“Over the last five years, we have witnessed a three times 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,” said Gupta.

Joining him as co-founders are Prateek Jindal who built Olamoney postpaid and Laxmikant Vyas who has been a top executive at Bajaj Finance.

“Credit cards are a very large and exciting market. It has over $100 billion in annual spends and still less than 2.5 per cent of the Indian population has a credit card today. The opportunity in front of us is truly immense,” said Prayank Swaroop, Partner, Accel India.