Kiwi Raises $6 Mn in Pre-seed Funding, Disrupts Indian Credit Card Industry With Innovative 'Credit on UPI' Offering

Kiwi co-founders (L-R) Siddharth Mehta, Mohit Bedi and Anup Agrawal

Kiwi has raised $6 million in pre-seed funding led by Nexus Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners

Certified by NPCI, Kiwi will partner with leading banks for issuing instant digital Rupay credit cards

Kiwi, a revolutionary credit card platform, has announced the launch of its all-in-one "Credit on UPI," solution for customers. Certified by the NPCI, Kiwi is the first app in India that will help customers experience “Credit on UPI” by issuing Rupay Cards in partnership with banks. With this launch, Kiwi aims to create one of the largest direct-to-consumer (D2C) models in the credit market through its cutting-edge mobile application, which offers users the ability to make payments using either a credit card or bank account directly through their phones in a secure manner.

The company has raised $6 million in pre-seed funding from marquee investors - Nexus Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, and a host of angel investors. Kiwi has been co-founded by senior fintech experts and banking industry veterans, Siddharth Mehta (ex-CEO, Freecharge), Mohit Bedi (ex-Axis Bank & PayU), and Anup Agrawal (ex-business head, LazyPay).

Speaking about the launch, Siddharth Mehta, co-founder, Kiwi, said, “UPI has become the most inclusive mode of payment in India, with over 30 crore unique users and 5 crore merchants onboarded on the platform. With the launch of Kiwi app, for the first time in India, users can now leverage the power of a (RuPay) credit card with the convenience and ease of UPI. Our vision is to enable access to credit on UPI for 1 million users over the next 18 months.”

RBI recently approved the linking of RuPay Credit Cards to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which will provide a seamless, digitally enabled credit card lifecycle experience for the users. Kiwi users will be issued a RuPay credit card, digitally and instantly. Post receiving the card, users will be able to link the card to UPI on the Kiwi app and will be able to use the “Credit on UPI” transactions facility at offline as well as online stores. The Kiwi app will also help users manage their cards with a host of facilities like blocking cards, increasing limits, and making card payments while rewarding them for every transaction. Starting today, users will be able to join the waitlist by signing up on the website. The Kiwi app (available on Android and iOS) is expected to go live by mid-May.

Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI said, “In our step towards attaining the goal of ‘Digital Payments for All’, Kiwi will be a game-changer in the Indian credit card industry. With the monthly expenditure on UPI P2M transactions amounting to approximately Rs. 3.2 lakh crore, which is almost 2.5x larger than the monthly credit card spends, Kiwi is set to capitalize on a significant untapped market. Moreover, the number of unique UPI users are more than 100 times the number of existing card users in India, and the acceptance points for 'Credit on UPI' are anticipated to be five times larger than regular credit card acceptance points. Looking at the whitespace that Kiwi is addressing, we’re confident that their model will support plenty of Indian credit card users on a daily basis.”

Anup Gupta, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners said, “Kiwi will offer consumers the best of credit cards and UPI i.e. convenience, rewards and flexible repayment experience of credit cards along with unmatched acceptance rail of UPI which is ubiquitous across India. We are excited to partner with Team Kiwi in their mission to accelerate credit card adoption in India.”

Ritesh Banglani, Stellaris Venture Partners said, “UPI is the world's second-largest payment network, and is truly world class both in scale and robustness. By enabling credit card usage over UPI, Kiwi will further deepen the consumer value provided by the network. We are thrilled to partner with Kiwi in their quest to revolutionise the Indian credit card market.”

About Kiwi:

GoKiwi, a recently launched fintech startup, is revolutionizing the credit card landscape in India by harnessing the power of "Credit on UPI", a recently introduced feature by NPCI. As a certified entity, GoKiwi is the first app in India to offer customers the opportunity to experience "Credit on UPI" through its partnership with banks to issue RuPay Cards. The company aims to disrupt the credit card industry by becoming the leading issuer of RuPay Credit Cards by 2026.

GoKiwi's unique selling proposition is its complete end-to-end lifecycle management of the credit product inside the app. GoKiwi plans to on-board 1 million customers in the first 18 months. Kiwi has raised $6 million in a pre-seed round from Nexus Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, and a host of angel investors. The company is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices across Delhi and Bengaluru. The company has a total staff strength of 20.

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