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| (L-R) Ujwal Tamminedi, Co-founder - HiWi, Geeta Chauhan, Co-founder - HiWi and Dewang Neralla, Founder - HiWi |
- Round also saw participation from Unmaj Group
- HiWi is a cross border fintech platform that aims to simplify payments
- The Company has launched its platform for students studying abroad with an aim to bring a safer, easier and a convenient way for remittances from parents to students across geographies
- HiWi will be looking to expand to more use cases using its tech for cross border payments
- Funds raised to be used for building out the MVP and GTM activities
- HiWi aims to support 25,000+ students across India with seamless remittance services to the tune of USD 100 million in the next one year
- HiWi has facilitated transactions worth USD 3,00,000 to various geographies in its pilot phase
HiWi, a global cross-border remittance fintech, has successfully secured INR 7.25 crore in a pre-seed funding round, with Unicorn India Ventures and the Unmaj Group Family Office leading the investment. The capital injection is earmarked for advancing product development and executing a strategic go-to-market rollout.
Headquartered in Mumbai, HiWi was co-founded by Dewang Neralla, a seasoned fintech entrepreneur and the former Founder and CEO of Atom Technologies, alongside Geeta Chauhan and Ujwal Tamminedi, accomplished professionals in the information technology and services sector.
The contemporary cross-border payment landscape is plagued by issues such as opacity in exchange rates, exorbitant forex margins, and documentation challenges. HiWi's mission is to streamline these processes across various sectors, including Study Abroad, Trade & Finance for SMEs, and industries confronted with intricate procedures.
HiWi's inaugural offering is geared towards simplifying remittances for students studying abroad. The platform serves as a centralized and integrated solution for both study abroad agents and students, offering a comprehensive suite of financial services. This includes a user-friendly mobile application for students to transfer funds, open foreign bank accounts, access financing options, manage card expenditures, accrue loyalty points, all while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
HiWi aspires to assist more than 25,000 students in remitting USD 100 million by March 2025 and aims to onboard 5,000 educational consultants onto its platform.
Dewang Neralla, Founder of HiWi, expressed his gratitude, stating, "I would like to thank Unicorn India Ventures and Unmaj Group for having confidence in HiWi's vision to make cross-border remittances accessible and convenient for all stakeholders. Although our initial focus is on education, we plan to expand our services to cater to SMEs, further streamlining and enhancing the remittance process."
Commenting on the fundraise, Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, says, “Foreign education is an ever growing market. At Unicorn, we have studied this segment and made investments both in study abroad and fintech companies. HiWi is combining the power of tech and addressing a much needed gap of facilitating cross border payments that are easier and convenient for both the parents and students. The company is starting with foreign admission but the product stack will be leveraged for other use cases post foreign admission, The future offerings canvas in this segment will give immense growth opportunities to HiWi.”
About HiWi (High Speed Wire):
HiWi is a next gen global cross-border fintech platform provider with a strong focus on simplifying payment processes and providing a wide range of services for students and businesses, especially in the context of cross-border remittances. It encapsulates the following:Global Cross-Border Fintech Platform: HiWi is designed to cater to international payments and financial transactions, making it easier for individuals and businesses to manage cross-border transactions.
Simplifying Payment Processes: The platform aims to streamline the often complex and time-consuming process of making international payments, which can involve multiple intermediaries, currency conversions, and high fees.
Comprehensive Suite of Services: HiWi appears to offer a variety of financial services beyond just payments.
Digital Services: The platform is digitally oriented, meaning customers can access and utilize its services online or via mobile apps. This emphasizes the convenience of online financial transactions.
Scalable Cloud-Based Infrastructure: HiWi is built on a scalable cloud-based infrastructure, which allows it to expand and adapt to changing demands and workloads. Cloud technology is often used for flexibility and cost-efficiency.
Integrations with AI Models: The incorporation of AI models like ChatGPT suggests that HiWi aims to provide enhanced customer support and interaction through
AI-driven chatbots. AI can assist with customer inquiries, transaction monitoring, and more.
Overall, HiWi aims to address common pain points in international payments and aims to improve the user experience by leveraging modern technologies such as cloud computing and AI.
For more information, visit: https://hiwipay.com/
About Unicorn India Ventures:
Started in 2016 by Bhaskar Majumdar and Anil Joshi, Unicorn India Ventures is a technology focused early-stage venture fund that invests capital in emerging and visionary startups. Unicorn India Ventures launched its first fund with a corpus of Rs 100 crore From its first Fund, UIV has invested in 17 companies like SmartCoin, Open Bank, Sequretek, Pharmarack, Genrobotics, Clootrack, FutureCure to mention some. The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) was more than 60 percent year over year. The Fund has emerged as the best performing early stage fund in India with the stellar exits provided by the fund to its LPs.
Fund II is a Rs 300 crore fund launched in 2020 that has invested in 20 companies so far like Gamerji, ForeignAdmits, Probus, Daalchini, Esmito, Finin. Most of the portfolio is scaling up fast and has had several uprounds.
Unicorn India Ventures has recently announced its first close of Rs 1000 crore Fund III. The first close reached at Rs 225 crore. With this Fund, UIV aims to build a portfolio of 25 startups that are focused on global SaaS and digital platforms. From the sector's perspective, the Fund is looking at newer sectors of climate tech, agritech, spacetech and the semiconductor ecosystem.
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