Exclusive: Virtual credit card app Kiwi set to raise around $23 Mn in Series B

Fintech startup Kiwi is raising $23 million from new and existing investors, according to two sources aware of the matter. The fresh funding is coming at a gap of nearly two years for the Mumbai-based startup.

“Vertex Ventures has issued a term sheet to lead the round,” said one of the sources, requesting anonymity as the talks are private. “Kiwi is likely to be valued at over $100 million (post-money) in this round, which will also see participation from existing investors Stellaris VP and Nexus VP.”

This fresh fundraise follows Kiwi’s Series A round in November 2023, when it secured $13 million led by the above-mentioned existing backers. At the time of the earlier round the startup was valued at around $65 million.

Entrackr has also confirmed the fundraise through regulatory filings.

Founded in 2022 by former Freecharge executive Anup Agrawal along with Satyam Kumar and Siddharth Mehta, Kiwi enables users to make UPI payments via RuPay credit cards. The company works with Axis Bank and has tied up with NPCI to push the adoption of credit on UPI.

Unlike traditional credit cards Kiwi issues a virtual RuPay card that can be directly linked to UPI apps such as Google Pay and PhonePe. The firm competes with Slice, OneCard and Uni among a few others.

Kiwi declined to comment on the story while queries sent to Vertex, Omidyar, Nexus and Stellaris did not elicit any response.

Investor interest in Kiwi is in line with the broader push by the Reserve Bank of India and NPCI to enable wider adoption of credit on UPI. Since the feature was introduced in 2022, the product has gained traction with both banks and fintech companies experimenting with solutions to increase credit usage in digital payments.

The firm claims to be the first to launch credit on UPI with a full-stack offering. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Siddharth Mehta, Anup Agarwal, and Mohit Bedi each hold about 16.2% stake in Kiwi as of the Series A round, while Nexus is the largest external stakeholder in the three-year-old startup.