Zolve announced it has raised $15 million in seed funding round led by Accel and Lightspeed, with participation from Blume Ventures and notable angel investors including Dr. Ashish Gupta (ex-Helion MD), Greg Kidd (angel investor in Twitter & Ripple), Kunal Shah (founder of Cred), Rahul Mehta (Managing partner at DST Global) and Rahul Kishore (Senior Managing Director, Coatue Capital).
It also marked the first investment of the Founder Collective (investor in Airtable and Uber) in an Indian startup, the company said in its release.
We started Zolve with a single aim – to create a financial world beyond borders with a cross-border neo-banking app for global citizens, the company added.
“The idea originated over a seemingly mundane dinner in New york. As the bill was presented, Raghu (founder of Zolve) saw his friends put forth their debit cards, not credit cards. On probing further, he was surprised to know that all of these folks, with years of stellar credit history in India had an uphill task in securing credit cards with decent spending limits on them in the U.S because the financial systems of one country do not talk to the financial systems of another country. As he continued talking to more people, he realised that even after one gets settled into the financial ecosystem of a new country, there are multiple teething issues that prevent them from seamlessly accessing financial products from any other country – even their home country,” the company said.
“We recognised this differential treatment of global citizens to be counterproductive and started Zolve. Our cross-border neobank will enable users to access multiple financial products across geographies, seamlessly on a single platform. Ultimately we want to create a financial world beyond borders, providing equitable financial access to citizens of the world, no matter where they are. Since our inception in December 2020, we have been able to bring together a seasoned team with experience in startups, finance and technology. We are an ambitious lot, brimming with optimism, innovation & empathy. If you resonate with our core values and are excited to create a global product, reach out to us at Zolve careers,” the company added.
“The global citizen community is largely underserved in terms of access to financial services and we believe that there is a huge market opportunity for Zolve,” Anand Daniel, partner at Accel, said. “Raghu has a proven track record as a founder and we are delighted to partner with him again on his latest venture.”
Bejul Somaia, MD of Lightspeed Venture Partners, said, “Individuals with financial identities in multiple geographies need seamless global financial solutions and we believe the team’s strong identification with the problem will enable them to deliver compelling and innovative financial experiences.”
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