Setu, a Bengaluru-based fintech API infrastructure startup, announced it has raised $15 million Series A funding led by New York-based investment firm Falcon Edge Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners US, the company announced recently.
The company’s existing investors—Lightspeed India Partners and Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund—also participated in the new financing round, Nikhil Kumar, co-founder of Setu, wrote in a post on Medium.
The startup will use the capital to primarily strengthen its team, roll out a suite of new products, and improve its technology infrastructure, Nikhil Kumar said.
“We want to reimagine financial services for every Indian, rich or poor, by enabling developers to build products that weren’t possible before. Patience, capital, experimentation, and stellar execution are essential to make this magic happen,” Kumar said.
Setu allows developers to access its platform, and build applications that then undergo a developer certification program, before going live. It offers open APIs across four categories—bills, savings, credit, and payments.
“By supplying the critically needed ‘pipe’ infrastructure that allows traditional and non-traditional financial products to reach a new class of Indian consumers, Setu can drive the sachetisation of the traditional financial product while enabling traditional public and private lenders to reach a wider cross-section of India in a digitally enhanced manner,” Navroz Udwadia, managing partner at Falcon Edge, said.
“We are big believers in Setu’s vision to build infrastructure that enables the large-scale distribution of, and access to, financial products. Sahil, Nikhil, and the Setu team have an exciting roadmap for the future of financial services in India,” Bejul Somaia, managing partner at Lightspeed India Partners, said.
“We are on a decades-long path to building financial infrastructure that will be used for generations to come,” Kini, chief executive of Setu, said.
Earlier in April 2019, the company raised $3.5 million in seed funding, led by Lightspeed India Partners with participation from Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund.
