Slice, credit provider for young professionals, eyes $1 bn gross transactions

Slice, a credit and payment startup mainly catering to young professionals, has raised a cumulative debt of Rs 165 crore from 18 top financial institutions. This includes Northern Arc Capital Limited, Vivriti Capital Private Limited, AU Small Finance Bank, Incred Financial Services Limited, Pace Fincap Private Limited, Western Capital Advisors, and Innoven Capital India. Of this, the company raised Rs 126 crore in just the past five months of FY21.

“Last year was volatile, which makes it even more empowering for us to have such strong financial institutions show solidarity with our vision,” said Rajan Bajaj, founder and CEO of Slice. “The number of institutions investing in us has grown significantly in FY21 alone.”

Catering to India’s youth, slice has over 300,000 members and 900,000 on the waitlist. About 70 per cent of them are young working professionals. The company has processed a transaction volume of over $250 million and plans to achieve a GTV (gross transaction value) run rate of $1 bn in FY22. With this, slice also plans to grow its member base by more than 3x to 1 million in the next 12 months.

“Our priority right now is to support the country in every way possible as we all collectively fight the second wave,” said Bajaj. “We have all learnt several lessons from the pandemic last year which will help us put our best foot forward and cater to our members’ needs adeptly. Customer centricity and business agility are more important in today’s times than ever before.”

In the last few quarters, slice has witnessed significant growth in terms of consumers and the size of the team. Despite the pandemic, the company grew by 125 per cent in 2020 and has recorded a 40-50 per cent increase in average customer spends. The company also plans to double its employee strength in 2021 with a major focus on tech, product and design.