Juspay Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates a payments technology firm, has raised $21.6 million (approximately Rs 164.05 crore at current exchange rates) in its Series B funding round.
The round was led by Sweden’s Vostok Emerging Finance (VEF), which invested $13 million in the technology firm, marking its first investment in the country, Juspay said in a statement. As part of the investment, VEF will also take a seat on Juspay’s board, it added.
Others that participated in the round include the Boston-based Wellington Management Company. Existing investor global venture capital firm Accel also took part in the round.
Vimal Kumar, co-founder at Juspay, said the firm will use the capital to fund its research and development, deepen its market presence in India and expand to other countries. “The fintech infrastructure needs an overhaul and India is leading the way with next-generation protocols like UPI and mandatory two-factor authentication,” he added.
Separately, VEF investment partner Alexis Koumoudos said the firm was confident of its bet on Juspay because of the company’s contributions to the payment infrastructure in India and its customer-focused approach.
Bengaluru-based Juspay, founded by Kumar and Ramanathan RV in 2012, says its platform is focussed on creating a unifying layer of products and value-added services to improve conversion rates for merchants and other stakeholders in the payments value chain.
The firm says its software development kit (SDK) has seen more than 200 million downloads, and that it has facilitated over $10 billion in annualised payment volume for clients such as Amazon, Flipkart, Uber, Swiggy, Ola and Cred.
In 2016, the company raised $5.8 million (around Rs 40 crore) from venture capital firm Accel Partners and BookMyShow founders Ashish Hemrajani, Parikshit Dar and Rajesh Balpande.
Deals in the fintech segment
The bet on Juspay represents another investor commitment to India’s fast-growing fintech space, which has seen cheques both large and small being issued to companies seeking to augment or introduce new services to India’s larger financial ecosystem.
In June last year, for example, online payment gateway startup Razorpay Software Pvt. Ltd raised $75 million (around Rs 524 crore) in a Series C funding round led by Ribbit Capital and Sequoia Capital India. Existing investors Tiger Global and Y Combinator also participated.
Last month, the Bengaluru-based Fampay Solutions Pvt. Ltd raised $4.7 million (Rs 34.6 crore) in seed funding from institutional and angel investors including Y Combinator, Venture Highway, Sequoia India, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Robinhood co-founder Vladimir Tenev, Cred founder Kunal Shah and Pine Labs chief executive Amrish Rau.
In February, DotPe Pvt. Ltd raised $8 million (around Rs 56.8 crore) in its seed funding round led by payments company PayU and Chinese conglomerate Fosun International. Other fintech startups that have raised capital in recent months include neo-banking startup EpiFi, informal sector-focused Kaleidofin, and digital banking firm Yelo.
