Exclusive: Former Freecharge CEO’s startup Kiwi to raise around $15 Mn

Virtual credit card platform Kiwi is in talks to raise around $15 million in a new funding round, two sources aware of the development told Entrackr. This will be the second fundraise for the Bengaluru-based startup this year.

“Kiwi is in late-stage talks to raise $15 million from Omidyar and Nexus Venture Partners,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity. “The terms of the deal have been sealed and an official announcement is likely in a few weeks from now.” 

Nexus and Stellaris Venture are existing backers which led Kiwi’s $6 million worth maiden funding round in May. According to sources, Kiwi could be valued in the range of $70-80 million in the Series A round. “Omidyar will invest around $7 million while the rest will come from other investors,” added the source.

Queries sent to Omidyar, Kiwi, Nexus and Stellaris did not elicit any response until publication of the story. We’ll update the post in case they do.

In February, Siddharth Mehta resigned from the top position at FreeCharge and partnered with Mohit Bedi and Anup Agarwal to launch Kiwi. Kiwi launched its all-in-one credit on UPI solution for customers which allows customers to experience credit on UPI by issuing Rupay cards in partnership with banks.

The app lets users block cards, increase limits, and make card payments while rewarding them for every transaction. As per Sensor Tower data, Kiwi has less than 200,000 downloads across Play Store and App Store.

​​In June 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed linking of RuPay credit cards to the UPI network. The move will help fintech players like Kiwi grow multifold as the Mumbai-based firm targets to provide access to credit on UPI for a million users by 2024.