Refrens Internet Pvt. Ltd, which operates an eponymous payments, invoicing and expense management system, has raised capital from high-profile angel investors.
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal were among the high-profile backers in this funding round, Refrens said in a statement.
Others that took part in the exercise include AngelList’s Collective Fund, the Mumbai-based early-stage fund FirstCheque, Ezcred’s Amiya Pathak, Freshworks’ Gireesh Subramaniam, Voonik founders Sujayath Ali and Naveneetha Krishnan, Park+’s Amit Lakhotia and Zebpay CEO Ajeet Khurana.
The Bengaluru-based startup will use the funds for expanding its reach and adding freelancer-friendly financial services. However, it didn’t disclose the amount it raised.
Refrens.com was launched in July 2019 by Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain. The startup says its platform is designed for business-to-business service providers including designers, software developers and accountants.
Currently, the company says over 12,000 freelancers and businesses are using its services.
“We are building an important platform to enable them [freelancers and small businesses] to get payments faster and to get more work,” Sarawagi said.
Separately, FirstCheque CEO Kushal Bhagia added that the early-stage firm was confident of its investment in Refrens because of its co-founders’ experience and the potential of the “fast-growing” freelancer and B2B service provider segment.
This is Sarawagi’s and Jain’s second startup. Before Refrens.com, Sarawagi had set up FindYogi, an e-commerce price comparison service. He has also worked with companies such as Freecharge and ZipDial.
Jain, meanwhile, is a co-founder of Nested Pointer and had served as FindYogi’s chief technology officer. He has also worked with companies such as Tata Consultancy Services.
Refrens.com is among the small number of expense management-focused startups that have raised money in the past couple of years. For example, in May last year, the VA Tech Ventures Pvt. Ltd-operated Happay raised funding from investors including Greyhound Capital.
Similarly, in February that year, the Bengaluru-based Fyle Technologies Pvt. Ltd raised Rs 30 crore (around $4.2 million then) in a Series A funding round that was led by the New York-based Tiger Global Management.