Indian startups have had a banger of a year so far with the fintech market growing like never before, thanks to the need for contactless payments and smart solutions. Backed by this massive growth spurt in the market, fintech startup Slice has raised a cumulative debt of ₹165 crores in FY21 from 18 of the country’s leading financial institutions. The list includes Northern Arc Capital Limited, Vivriti Capital Private Limited, AU Small Finance Bank, Incred Financial Services Limited, Pace Fincap Private Limited, Western Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd, and Innoven Capital India Pvt Ltd.
The firm now looks to clock a gross transaction volume (GTV) run rate of $1 billion in FY22, and quadruple its current transaction volume of over $250 million( in FY21).
Out of this ₹165 crores, ₹126 crores was raised in the first five months of 2021 itself. The firm had raised ₹46 crores in a pre-Series B funding round last year.
This new debit will help Slice, which has an enviable waitlist of over 3,00,000 members, in its plans to expand its member base by more than three times to a million in the next 12 months.
Backed by venture capital firms like Gunosy Capital, Das Capital, Finup, Blume Ventures India, and Simile Venture Partner, as well as angel investors such as Kunal Shah, Slice is best known for its Slice Card, a challenger credit card issued in partnership with Visa which has made the process of payments and other financial transactions “more transparent, simple and rewarding.”
“Last year was volatile, which makes it even more empowering for us to have such strong financial institutions show solidarity with our vision. The number of institutions investing in us has grown significantly in FY21 alone, a validation of our strategy of keeping the lowest NPAs in the industry,” said Rajan Bajaj, Founder & CEO, Slice.
Customer centricity and business agility are more important in today’s times than ever before, he noted, adding that Slice’s current priority was to aid the country in every way possible in combating the second wave, taking heed from the lessons learned last year. India is bearing the brunt of the second wave of the pandemic as cases continue to climb amid a dearth of supplies and oxygen.
The pandemic, which has controlled almost every aspect of our lives since the last year, has been the cause of woe for many companies and industries. That was not the case with Slice, which noted significant growth in terms of consumers and the size of the team. The pandemic could not prevent the company from growing by 125% in terms of revenue in FY21 and recording an increase of 20-50% in average customer spends. With a major focus on tech, product, and design, the five-year-old Slice aims to double its employee strength this year.
