Slice, a new-age credit card startup which offers flexibility to pay bills, manage expenses and give reward points, said it has raised $220 million in new funding led by US-based investors Tiger Global and Insight Partners. Existing investors Gunosy, Blume Ventures and 8i also participated in the new funding round, reported ET.
Post this funding, the Bengaluru-based startup is valued at over $1 billion—a five times increase since its previous funding round six months ago. Advent International’s Sunley House Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures and Anfa are among its new investors joining the funding round that minted the latest unicorn taking the total number of members in this club to 41 this year, so far.
Guillaume Pousaz, founder of European fintech major Checkout.com, and Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal have also participated in the round as angel investors, Slice founder Rajan Bajaj said.
Founded in 2015 by Rajan Bajaj and Siva Kumar Tangudu, Slice allows users to pay bills, manage expenses and unlock rewards. It is focused on the new age millennial and Gen Z segment, with an average age of 27, that have largely been rejected credit cards by large banks, due to inadequate credit scoring around this demographic. The company has raised $250 million in equity financing to date. Its total registered user base is around 5 million.
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The company issues credit and payment cards, ‘Slice Super Card’, to this segment in partnership with Visa and SBM Bank India Ltd., allowing them to build their credit scores and gain through rewards and discounts from payments. Slice ships around 200,000 cards a month and allows users to cut the bills into three monthly installments.
Slice is currently working on introducing unified payments interface (UPI)-based payments on its app, besides credit card issuances, Rajan Bajaj said.
Alex Cook, partner at Tiger Global, said, “Slice has built a product that customers love, which we expect will result in continued growth and market share gains.”
Deven Parekh, MD, Insight Partners, said Slice is targeting an underpenetrated market in India and allows users to make online payments, pay bills and more. “There is a large opportunity in the credit and payment space in India and Slice is well-positioned to become the leader in the industry. We look forward to this partnership with Slice as they continue to scale up and grow.
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