GrowthCap Ventures led the $1.85 million pre-seed round for Spense, a Bengaluru-based startup developing programmable banking and card infrastructure.
Other participants include Ravi Sudhakar (Director, AI Global Business Strategy, Microsoft), Suresh Rayasam (Head of Applied AI for GTM), Sayandeb Banerjee (co-founder, The Math Company), and Kunal Shah (founder, CRED).
Spense says the money will be used to expand the product and technology stack to support more use cases outside of credit cards, onboard more banks, and develop fintech partnerships.
Spense, which was founded by Srinivas Krishnamurthy, a former Technical Lead at BNP Paribas, and Pawan Kumar, a former head of Applied Science at Uber India, offers infrastructure for prepaid cards, secured credit cards, and forex programs.
The platform’s integration capabilities for new credit products and regulatory oversight are intended to assist financial institutions.
Regulated organizations currently use Spense to establish and oversee secured credit initiatives. Through integration with legacy systems, the company’s infrastructure facilitates auditability and quicker time to market.
