Slice turns unicorn with $220 Mn round led by Tiger and Insight Partners

Credit card platform Slice has raised $220 million in its Series B round co-led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners. Existing investors: Advent International’s Sunley House Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Anfa, Gunosy, Blume Ventures and 8i also participated in the round.

According to Slice, the fresh funds have come at over $1 billion valuation. 

The company joins 40 others who turned unicorns in 2021. Last week, NoBroker, Spinny and Upstox checked into the $1 billion plus valuation club.

Notably, startup billionaires Binny Bansal (Flipkart co-founder) and Guillaume Pousaz (Checkout’s co-founder and CEO) also participated in the Series B round.

The Bengaluru-based startup had last raised $10 million in debt in July and $20 million in equity in June this year. The fresh funds will be used for onboarding users, hiring and building new products, said Slice in a press statement.

Helped along with a partnership with Visa and SMB Bank, Slice provides physical and virtual cards for students and young salaried professionals to avail buy now pay later [BNPL] products. The company has refrained from sharing any numbers beyond the registered user base of 5 million.

The five-year-old company claims to offer upto 2% cashback on every transaction, provides members with an option to convert monthly bills payable into 3 instalments with no extra charges. It aims for 150 million users to opt for credit cards or BNPL products over the next 5-7 years. 

For the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2021, Slice recorded a slight increase in its revenue from operations to Rs 35.35 crore from Rs 29.88 crore in FY20. The company’s expenses also increased by 34% to Rs 47.87 crore from Rs 35.72 crore in the previous fiscal.

The company was close to break-even in FY20, however, it incurred a loss of Rs 8.91 crore in the latest fiscal i.e. FY21.

After Tiger’s backing, Slice will go after aggressive customer acquisition and heighten competition for peers: KreditBee, OneCard and Uni. Unlike banks, Slice and these three players are eyeing to tap into millennials who are usually ignored by bank run credit cards. While the size of the opportunity appears large, the sector is likely to face regulatory hurdles sooner than later.