Aspora, a London-based consumer fintech focused on financial services for diaspora communities, has raised $90m in funding.
Founded in 2022 by Parth Garg, who dropped out of Stanford University to take the startup through accelerator Y-Combinator, has pivoted since its early days and is currently focused on enabling Indian nationals living overseas to make international payments.
The financing comprises of three separate previously unannounced funding rounds, which include a $5m seed extension led by Hummingbird, a $35m Series A led by Sequoia with participation from Greylock and a $53.5m Series B co-led by Greylock and Sequoia featuring participation from QuantumLight, the AI-powered VC firm founded by Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky.
The raise bucks a trend of consumer-focused investors largely favouring bets on earlier-stage B2B fintechs or more mature consumer fintechs over newer consumer-facing companies, and values Aspora at $500m.
For the global diaspora
Garg’s decision to focus on the Indian diaspora as Aspora’s first target market was partly formed by his personal experience as an Indian national living overseas.
“I grew up in the UAE, so I’ve been a part of the diaspora and an immigrant for all my life,” he says. “It’s something that resonates with me.”
Another reason is that it’s also one of the richest and largest diaspora communities in the world. According a BBC report citing Reserve Bank of India figures, the bank accounts of non-resident Indians (NRIs) held in the country received $7.99bn (£6.27bn) between April 2022 and March 2023 – more than twice the $3.23bn (£2.54) in the prior fiscal year.
Aspora’s core offering focuses on enabling overseas Indian nationals to send money to their home country from their country of residence at the same exchange rates you’d see on Google.
It’s live in the UK, UAE, Germany, Italy and Ireland, where it has amassed 250k quarterly active users. It will also be rolled out in the US next month, and has plans to launch in Canada, Singapore and Australia by the end of the year.
Customers sending money from the UK to India are charged a flat fee of £3 and users transferring from the UAE to India incur no fee, which Garg says helps it compete against dominant remittance apps like Wise and Remitly.
“In the UAE, we’re one of the only digital ways to send money,” he says. “And in the UK, people use us because we’re better priced.”
What’s next?
Garg wants to build a global finance app geared towards NRIs (non-resident Indians), and Aspora will roll out a feature in the next month which allows NRIs to pay their bills — ”utility bills, credit card bills, rent payments” — in India through the app.
Following that, there are plans to launch an interest-incurring multi-currency account, which will take advantage of an Indian government subsidy on foreign currency accounts held in the country, as well as later plans to launch a full-stack Indian bank accounts for NRIs.
A portion of the funding will go towards building those products, with the remainder dedicated to procuring licences in regions it’s expanding into and to double headcount in the next 12 months.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/aspora-funding/
