TaxiForSure founder’s new venture gets $15m seed funding

TaxiForSure co-founder Raghunandan G.’s world neobank enterprise Zolve has picked up $15 million in its seed funding spherical, which was led by Accel and Lightspeed Venture Partners and noticed participation of Blume Ventures and a bunch of angels, together with Cred’s Kunal Shah.
DST Global’s Managing Partner Rahul Mehta and Coatue Management’s Senior Managing Director Rahul Kishore had been the opposite notable angels within the spherical. The seed funding additionally marked the primary funding of US-based seed-stage investor Founders Collective in an Indian startup.

With the newly infused capital, the US-headquartered fintech startup is ready to supply frontend banking options to migrants transferring from India to the US and vice versa, via tie-ups with US and Indian banks in its first stage of launch.

Raghunandan informed The Economic Times that the corporate then plans to open its companies to different worldwide corridors and widen its bouquet of options to portfolio and tax administration companies as nicely. Zolve is ready to go stay for prospects later this yr, he mentioned.

“There is a bit of plumbing that needs to be done before setting the requisite banking rails. We will first enable services for the India-US corridor and then expand our focus to more such corridors across the world,” Raghunandan mentioned.

The startup’s buyer acquisition technique includes providing banking and credit score help to migrants planning to relocate to a different nation. It’ll additionally supply worldwide banking and portfolio administration companies to cross-border travellers via an built-in platform.

This, based on Raghunanadan, is an $85 billion market. In its second part of growth, the corporate plans to supply banking options within the UK and Canada, in addition to the Middle Eastern nations, predominantly concentrating on the Indian migrant neighborhood.

“Our cross-border neobank will enable global citizens to access financial products seamlessly, save money and invest it further, helping them be financially free to pursue their ambition, no matter where they are,” mentioned Raghunandan.

His earlier entrepreneurial enterprise noticed Raghunandan co-found cab aggregator platform Taxi For Sure in 2011, which was later acquired by Ola for $200 million in 2015. “We felt that the world is going global; except for finance. This is a real opportunity to create a new solution,” he mentioned, speaking about his segue into fintech.

Taxi For Sure’s different co-founder, Aprameya Radhakrishna, not too long ago co-founded Koo, which is now gaining reputation as a homegrown rival to the US-based Twitter.

According to Anand Daniel, accomplice at Accel, Raghunandan’s “track record” at Taxi For Sure coupled with Zolve’s doubtlessly disruptive enterprise mannequin may make it a compelling guess.

“The world citizen neighborhood is essentially underserved by way of entry to monetary companies and we imagine that there’s a big market alternative for Zolve,” Anand mentioned in an announcement. “Raghu has a proven track record as a founder and we are delighted to partner with him again on his latest venture.”

Bejul Somaia, MD of Lightspeed Venture Partners, mentioned, “Individuals with financial identities in multiple geographies need seamless global financial solutions and we believe the team’s strong identification with the problem will enable them to deliver compelling and innovative financial experiences,” mentioned Bejul Somaia, Lightspeed India Partners.”

GF-2 Greenery Apartment 16 Plain Street, Shivaji Nagar Bangalore, 560001 India.

Zolve allows customers to get an operational U.S. bank account and a high-limit credit card while still in their home country. With perks like no application fee, easy approvals, and a completely online set-up, the future looks boundless.

This release was published on openPR.