Indian BNPL start-up Uni raises $70m in Series A funding round

Indian buy now, pay later (BNPL) start-up Uni has raised $70 million in a Series A funding round led by General Catalyst.

Indian BNPL start-up Uni lands $70m funding

The round also saw participation from Eight Roads Ventures, Elevation Capital and Arbor Ventures, as well as existing investors Lightspeed and Accel.

Uni says the funds will go towards scaling up the team, launching new products and investing further in technology.

Uni was founded by Nitin Gupta, Prateek Jindal and Laxmikant Vyas, who previously worked at fintech and financial services firms such as PayU, Bajaj Finserv and Ola Financial Services.

The start-up raised an $18.5 million seed round in October 2020 while still in stealth mode, and its flagship product – the Pay 1/3rd card – was launched the following year.

The company says it’s India’s first pay later card that automatically splits every transaction into thirds, allowing consumers to pay their monthly spends in three parts over three months for no extra charges.

It also offers a 1% rewards option in the form of cashback if a user chooses to pay back in full after the usual one-month interest-free credit period.

The business is growing at 50% month on month, according to Uni. The card is currently available in 50 cities in India, with plans to expand to another 50 in the next quarter.

“The Indian credit market is ripe for explosion and there is vast room for innovation,” comments Gupta, CEO of Uni.

“BNPL is growing at a breakneck speed in India and within BNPL we are seeing that the biggest potential lies in the Pay 1/3rd category.”

Consulting firm RedSeer estimates that the BNPL market in India will grow to $45-50 billion by 2026 from the current $3-3.5 billion. The number of BNPL customers is also expected to rise to 80-100 million from the current 10-15 million.