Credit card startup OneCard’s parent FPL Technologies has raised $100 million (Rs 802.4 crore) in a Series D round led by Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, making it the latest entrant into the much-coveted unicorn club.
The current round values the mobile-first credit card brand at over $1.2 billion. A unicorn is a privately-held startup valued at over $1 billion.
The regulatory filings obtained by VCCircle showed Temasek invested around Rs 375 crore (around $48 million). The round also saw participation from Matrix Partners, QED Investors, Hummingbird Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Sarv Investments.
While Sarv Investments participated with Rs 112.5 crore, Hummingbird invested Rs 1.87 crore, Sequoia Capital with Rs 7.5 crore and Matrix Partners joined the round with Rs 1.88 crore
OneCard is the second unicorn in the credit card space after Slice.
OneCard did not respond to request for comment.
Founded by Sinha, Rupesh Kumar and Vibhav Hathi, FPL Technologies offers credit cards through OneCard, a mobile-first and metal credit card offering. It first launched “One Score” in 2019 as a digital credit score platform offering free credit score checks and personalized insights with which customers can monitor and manage their credit health in a simple, secure manner.
The company has partnered with Federal Bank, IDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda’s BOB Financial Solutions, South Indian Bank, and State Bank of Mauritius. It competes with players like Slice, Karbon Card, Uni Card, Kodo Card, among others.
In January, OneCard raised $75 million at a post-money valuation of $750 million as part of its series C funding round, led by its existing investor - QED Investors.
In July 2020, FPL Technologies had raised around Rs 80 crore (about $11 million) as part of the Series A funding round, and in the following month, the company raised another $10 million (around Rs 74.6 crore) as part of the Series A round.
In FY21, it reported a net loss of Rs 33.1 crore. Multiple fintech businesses are challenging traditional banks in the credit card market. While OneCard appears to be targeting premium customers with its metal credit cards, fintech unicorn Slice is targeting the new-age millennial customers who have been rejected by traditional banks for inadequate credit scoring.
The funding round also comes at a time when uncertainty around buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platforms post the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sent a notice that disallows prepaid payment instrument providers from offering non-bank credit lines.