Indian FinTech startup Uni bags US$70 million funding in Series A round

India-based FinTech startup Uni that offers ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) service raises US$70 million funding in a Series A round led by General Catalyst.

The round was also joined by new investors Eight Road Ventures, Arbor Ventures, and Elevation Capital along with participation from existing investors Accel India and Lightspeed. This takes Uni’s valuation at US$350 million as compared to about US$45 million one year ago.

Uni plans to use the fresh funds to launch more products, scale monthly disbursements through its Uni Cards, invest in technology while growing its team and strengthening its user base.

“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 (Uni) that is world-class on credit, risk and payments while also being hyper focused on product and customer delight,” said Alex Tran, managing director at General Catalyst.
The Bengaluru-based startup aims to bridge the gap between the country’s credit appetite and the appallingly low credit card penetration that stands at 3 percent. Uni launched Pay 1/3^rd Card in June 2021 that enables the users to split the bills or costs of their purchases into three parts. The company has partnered with the State Bank of Mauritius, RBL Bank, Liquiloans, and DML Finance for this service.

The BNPL segment in India is seeing a surge with a host of new startups offering such services, Uni competes directly with FinTechs like Indiabull’s Dhani, Simpl, and Slice that offer similar proposition.

Nitin Gupta, co-founder and CEO Uni said, “Uni card is our first product. There are four more products in the pipeline that will be launched in the next year. It will again be a combination of rewards, repayment period and so on. We are looking to launch a credit card too.”

About Uni

Founded in 2020 by Nitin Gupta, Laxmikant Vyas, Prateek Jindal, Uni Cards offers credit cards that allow consumers to pay their monthly spending in three parts over three months for no additional charges. In case a person chooses to pay in more than three months then they can opt for EMIs or pay late fees while making payments.