[ad_1]
Despite the fact that nearly 1 billion debit cards are used in India today, there are only 58 million credit cards in circulation in the world’s second most populous nation.
According to industry estimates, between 30 and 35 million people in the country today have a credit card. Part of the reason the vast majority of the population hasn’t cut back is because they don’t have a credit score, or if they have a qualifying credit score, they don’t see any appeal in the paltry rewards that most credit offers. cards in the country.
The credit card industry in India appears to be stuck in a stalemate. Part of the reason so few people in the country have a credit score is because banks and credit card companies still rely on old methodologies to determine a person’s credit worthiness.
Most banks in India are only comfortable with issuing credit cards to people who have a full-time job at one of the hundreds of companies listed on their spreadsheets that they last updated years ago.
Through his new startup called Uni, Nitin Gupta wants to address some of these problems. And he is one of the few people in the country who is in a position to do so. He was a co-founder of PayU India and later led the financial services business of the ride-sharing company Ola.
During his tenure at PayU, the startup established a domain in the payment processing business in the country. And in Ola, it launched Olamoney Postpaid, a service that allows customers to pay for their trips at a later stage. Olamoney, which was valued at $ 250 million last year, is now one of the largest financial services companies in the country.
Serious VCs are now willing to bet on Gupta’s new venture.
Nitin Gupta, a veteran in the financial services business, co-founded Uni
On Tuesday, Uni announced that it had raised $ 18.5 million in its seed funding round led by Lightspeed and Accel. The startup doesn’t currently have a product, but it took Gupta just two months in the middle of a global pandemic to generate what is one of the largest seed funding rounds in India.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Gupta told Uni that he is joined by two more senior executives, Laxmikant Vyas and Prateek Jindal, who hold stellar records in the financial services business.
He declined to reveal what exactly Uni’s product – or product line – would look like, but suggested that Uni is building the consumer credit card of the modern age. “It would seem very obvious when it comes out, and people will wonder why no one else thought about it,” he said, adding that he is working with various banks to establish partnerships.
The adoption of digital payments has grown exponentially in the country in the last five years, but the credit card business is still struggling to move forward, he said, adding that he sees an opportunity to expand the credit card base to 200 million. in the next. five years.
Bejul Somaia, Partner at Lightspeed India, said: “The Nitin and Uni team is passionate about unleashing the power of financial services for millions of Indian consumers using new technology solutions. We are excited about their mission and proud to support them from day one. “
