Entellus Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which operates enterprise-focussed neo-banking platform Nupay, has raised funding in a seed investment round led by startup incubator and accelerator Venture Catalysts.
Angel investors such as former HDFC Bank executive Navin Puri and ValueFirst founder and CEO Vishwadeep Bajaj also took part in the funding round, Nupay said in a statement.
The Gurugram-based company didn’t disclose the amount it raised but said it will use the funds for expanding its presence and product optimisation, the statement added.
Nupay co-founder Neeraj Singh said the company was focussed on creating a scalable, modular and seamless product with a view to bringing the banking, payments and credit services ecosystem together through a unified platform.
“Nupay’s platform is extremely relevant to the current banking ecosystem and helps banks to further their digital and open banking initiative. The firm has built a strong product with many large clients using the platform,” Puri said separately.
Nupay, founded in 2017 by Alok Arora and Neeraj Singh, says its platform enables banking transactions, contextual payments, receivables and payables automation for enterprises of all sizes and governments.
The neo-bank says it leverages partnerships with banks and client enterprise resource planning integration to automate account receivables and payables, helping organisations to reduce cycle time, improve cash flows and provide seamless reconciliation processes.
The firm says it has partnered with IndusInd Bank and Yes Bank and has also worked with companies such as Yatra, StarAgri and Aditya Birla Capital.
It is among a slew of neo-banking startups within the larger financial technology segment that have raised funding in recent months. Earlier this month, EpiFi Technologies Pvt. Ltd raised $13.2 million (around Rs 93.49 crore) in seed funding at a valuation of around $50 million from investors such as Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital and Hillhouse Capital.
Last month, informal sector-focussed neo-bank Kaleidofin raised Rs 36 crore (around $5.06 million) in Series A funding led by financial inclusion-focussed impact investor Oikocredit. Other neo-banks that have raised money in recent months include NiYO Solutions, which received $35 million in a Series B funding round from several investors, including Chinese conglomerate Tencent.
This is the fourth reported investment by Venture Catalysts this year. Set up in December 2015 by Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Anuj Golecha, Anil Jain and Gaurav Jain, the firm usually invests between $250,000 and $1 million each in early-stage startups.
The incubator and accelerator said its network of high-net-worth individual investors struck 60 investment deals and 27 exit transactions in 2019.
In August last year, it floated a fund, the 9Unicorns Fund, with a corpus of Rs 300 crore ($43.44 million), to help early-stage Indian startups expand their business. The fund will typically invest Rs 60 lakh for a 5% stake in a startup and may put in additional Rs 3-5 crore in subsequent funding rounds depending on a company’s ability to meet its growth objectives.
