Bangalore based Fintech startup Slice has raised $50 Mn in a fresh Series C funding round, led by seasoned VC and company’s existing investor Tiger Global. Slice has also brought in Japan’s GMO Ventures Partners onboard as a new investor in this round.
Founder and CEO Rajan Bajaj said “Investors continue to back businesses which are doing well. We were well capitalised in the previous round and have raised the round to grow our UPI product and shore up our balance sheets. Since it was a smaller transaction we were not in touch with a lot of investors.”
Slice plans to extend this series C round and raise atleast another $50 Mn, while they hope to bring in a healthier sum of $150 Mn. Regardless, at the end of this round, the firm is expected to be valued at $1.2 Billion. Slice joined the unicorn club in November last year, post a $220 Mn funding round
Founded in 2016 by Rajan Bajaj, Slice is a credit card payments service that targets a younger demographic, millenials and Gen-Z, who are often denied credit cards by established banks due to their subpar credit scores. Slice issues credit cards in partnership with VISA and SBM bank. The app throws in offer-discoveries and discounts to sweeten the deal, via their commerce platform Spark. Slice also offers credit line to its users spanning from INR 10,000 to INR 10,00,000. The proceeds from this round will be used by the company to further develop it’s UPI platform, stepping into direct competition with household names like Google’s Gpay, PayTM, Amazon Pay and more.
Addressing the company’s performance, CEO Bajaj said “We were profitable after tax in 2021, however we haven’t been profitable in the last few quarters, since we were scaling up. Our NBFC continues to be profitable and we will see our card business be profitable in the coming months.”
Slice has raised a total of $270 Mn so far. The company has established a user base of 12 lakh users. According to recent figures, Slice logged an increase in losses by 394% totalling to INR 8.9 Cr, and an increase of 18% in revenue to INR 35.3 Cr in FY21. The company also reported a 34% increase in its expenses, which reached INR 47.8 Cr in FY21.
The company, although targeting a slightly tighter niché for its business, faces competition from other Fintech companies like Uni Card, KreditBee, Click Capital, Neon and Qudian.
