Decoding fintech startup Kiwi’s Series A funding round

Virtual credit card platform Kiwi recently announced raising a $13 million funding from Omidyar Network, with participation from existing investors Nexus Ventures and Stellaris Venture Partners.

While the Bengaluru-based company did not reveal essential information like post-money valuation and shareholding pattern, startup data intelligence platform TheKredible has sifted through the regulatory filings to uncover the critical details.

The board at Kiwi passed a special resolution to issue 12,537 Series A compulsory convertible preference shares at an issue price of Rs 86,070 per share to raise Rs 107.9 crore or $13 million.

Nexus Ventures led the funding round with an infusion of Rs 41.5 crore followed by Omidyar Network and Stellaris Venture Partners which invested Rs 35.9 crore and Rs 30.5 crore, respectively.

As per TheKredible’s estimates, the company has been valued at around $64 million or Rs 531 crore (post-money). It has raised $19 million or over Rs 156 crore to date across two rounds.

During May this year, the company raised a $6 million seed funding round led by Nexus Ventures with a participation of Stellaris Venture Partners and other angel investors including Prashanth R, Sayali Karanjkar, Vineet Sethi, Vijay Agicha, Richa Pant, Harshili Mhatre, Parth Pande, Vishal Gupta, Varun Khurana, and Narendra Rathi.

Founded by Siddharth Mehta, Mohit Bedi and Anup Agarwal, 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.

Post-allotment of the Series A funding, founders Siddharth Mehta, Anup Agarwal and Mohit Bedi diluted their stakes to 16.2% each. Nexus Ventures became the largest stakeholder post fresh investment. The company also has an ESOP Pool of 7.17%. For complete shareholding structure, visit here.

In February, Mehta resigned from the position of chief executive at FreeCharge to launch his own startup.

Since its launch, Kiwi claims to have issued 25,000 virtual credit cards, with average monthly spending of about Rs 22,000 per user. As per Mehta, the users are currently making at least 17-18 transactions per month.

The firm has set a target to provide access to credit on UPI for 500,000 users by 2024.

Kiwi remained in the pre-revenue stage during FY23. As per Thekredible, it generated Rs 31.8 lakh from non-operating activities in FY23. While the company’s losses stood at Rs 2.86 crore during the fiscal year.