Virtual credit card platform Kiwi to raise around $15 M in new funding: Report
According to two sources with knowledge of the situation, virtual credit card platform Kiwi is in discussions to raise approximately $15 million in a new funding round. This will be the Bengaluru-based startup’s second fundraising effort of the year.
“Kiwi is in late-stage talks to raise $15 million from Omidyar and Nexus Venture Partners,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity. “The terms of the deal have been sealed and an official announcement is likely in a few weeks from now.”
Existing backers Nexus and Stellaris Venture oversaw Kiwi’s $6 million initial funding round in May. Sources claim that Kiwi’s Series A valuation could be in the range of $70-80 million. The source continued, “Omidyar will contribute about $7 million, with the remainder coming from other investors”.
Before the story was published, no one at Omidyar, Kiwi, Nexus, or Stellaris responded to inquiries. If they do, we’ll update the post.
Siddharth Mehta left his position as CEO of FreeCharge in February and joined forces with Mohit Bedi and Anup Agarwal to launch Kiwi. Kiwi introduced its all-inclusive credit on UPI solution for customers, enabling them to use credit on UPI by issuing Rupay cards in collaboration with banks.
Users of the app can block cards, raise limits, and make card payments while also earning rewards for each transaction. Fewer than 200,000 people have downloaded Kiwi from the Play Store and App Store, according to Sensor Tower data.
The RBI approved the connection of RuPay credit cards to the UPI network in June 2022. With a goal of giving a million users access to credit via UPI by 2024, Mumbai-based Kiwi will benefit greatly from the move.
