AAA Slice carves out $220m in series B

Slice carves out $220m in series B

Slice, the India-based operator of a challenger bank focused on millennial customers, has received $220m in series B funding from investors including news aggregation app developer Gunosy, Mint reported today.

Investment firm Tiger Global Management and growth equity firm Insight Partners co-led the round, which also featured Sunley House Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Anfa, 8i Ventures, Blume Ventures and private investors including Binny Bansal, co-founder of e-commerce marketplace Flipkart.

Founded in 2016, Slice runs an online financial services platform with more than 5 million registered users that allows them to pay bills, divide consumer payments into instalments, earn 2% cashback on purchases and access consumer finance and exclusive deals.

The capital will be used to bolster Slice’s current product offering and introduce new functionality, in addition to supporting its non-banking financial company (NBFC) subsidiary.

Slice’s founder and CEO, Rajan Bajaj, told Mint: “At Slice, we believe that we have built a solid business model and will focus our energies now into growing and scaling the platform. We have been prudent with our business so far and burnt $4.5m (in capital) over five years.

“A part of the capital from this fundraise will be invested into our NBFC, as we need to have our own skin in the game, rather than raising debt alone. The remainder of the fundraise will be utilised towards launching new products and scaling the team.”

Digital financial services provider FinUp Finance Technology had joined existing backers Blume Ventures, Das Capital and Simile Ventures to supply $15m in series A capital for the company in 2018, increasing its overall funding to $17.5m.

Gunosy led a $6m round for Slice in June 2020 that included EMVC, Better Capital, Das Capital and Kunal Shah. It was followed by $20m from Gunosy and Blume Ventures 12 months later.

Image courtesy of GaragePreneurs Internet Pvt Ltd.

By Robert Lavine

Robert Lavine is special features editor for Global Venturing.