Multinational payments technology company Mastercard Inc. has invested in software-as-a-services company Syntizen Technologies Pvt. Ltd in its latest bet on an Indian startup.
The pre-Series A investment in Hyderabad-based Syntizen, which provides digital identity solutions, adds to Mastercard's bets on online payment gateway startup Razorpay and mobile payments technology platform ToneTag. The US company had invested in Razorpay in 2016 and back ToneTag last year.
Apart from Mastercard, biometric services provider Access Computech Pvt. Ltd (ACPL) also invested in Syntizen, the startup said in a statement. It didn't disclose the amount it raised.
Syntizen said it will use the money to expand its market presence and enhance its electronic customer on-boarding platform. It will also use the capital to grow the usage of its products that include solutions for digital identity checks and talent acquisition.
Syntizen co-founder and chief executive officer Vamsi Kotte said the investments by Mastercard and ACPL would also help the company penetrate the global market for digital identity solutions. “Our simple and secure digital identity check process helps companies to validate and verify a customer instantly for service delivery,” Kotte said.
Rajeev Kumar, Mastercard's senior vice-president for market development for South Asia, said the company was confident in its investment because of Syntizen combining technological solutions with on-ground initiatives. ACPL managing director Ajay Sinha added that the company had already successfully deployed its solutions in Telangana.
Syntizen was founded in 2014 by Kotte, Siddharth Kukatlapalli and Dinesh Desu. The company functions by offering its digital identity solutions to regulated organisations and state governments through its proprietary Aadhaar-based technological platform.
Some of the startup’s clients include the Telangana and Uttar Pradesh governments, non-bank lenders such as Muthoot Fincorp, Manappuram Finance and Shriram Housing, and brokerage firms such as Motilal Oswal and Angel Broking. Syntizen claims its solutions have helped the state governments save at least Rs 85 crore.
SaaS startups
There has been significant investor interest in the SaaS segment of late, as investors and startups seek to capitalise on market opportunities across sectors.
In the digital identity segment, Veri5Digital raised $2 million (about Rs 14.06 crore) last month in a Series A round led by the California-based venture capital firm Khosla Ventures. The company will use the funding to scale its products for the Indian market and also build new services and digital market-related products.
In other sectors, employee performance management platform Dockabl raised $1.26 million (around Rs 8.73 crore) in its pre-Series A round from a bunch of investors in June.
