Bengaluru-based fintech startup Spense raises $1.85 million

Spense, a Bengaluru-based fintech startup aiming to rewire India’s credit rails, has raised $1.85 million in a pre-seed funding round led by GrowthCap Ventures.

The capital infusion will help the startup scale its programmable banking infrastructure, onboard more banks, and expand into new fintech partnerships beyond its current offerings in secured credit cards. 

Founded in 2023 by Pawan Kumar, former Head of Applied Science at Uber India, and Srinivas Krishnamurthy, who previously led technical teams at BNP Paribas, Spense is positioning itself as a full-stack infrastructure provider for regulated financial entities. The platform enables banks and fintechs to issue secured credit cards, prepaid instruments, and forex products while ensuring regulatory compliance, auditability, and integration with legacy systems. 

Spense’s backers include high-profile angel investors such as CRED’s Kunal Shah, The Math Company’s Sayandeb Banerjee, Suresh Rayasam of Google, and Microsoft’s Ravi Sudhakar.

The startup’s thesis is anchored in the belief that millions of Indian consumers, especially those with fixed deposits, are locked out of credit access due to outdated infrastructure and risk-averse underwriting practices. Spense offers APIs and developer tools that allow banks to roll out credit products faster while meeting compliance requirements.

CEO Pawan Kumar said, “If someone has a fixed deposit, they should be able to get a credit card. It’s that simple. We’ve proven the model. Now it’s time to scale secured credit cards with every bank in India.” He added that the company’s broader mission is to make banking infrastructure “work quietly in the background” so that end-users can access credit and payment products when needed.

Chief Technology Officer Srinivas Krishnamurthy noted that the company is expanding its technology stack to support new financial use cases. “We're now focused on unlocking more use cases beyond credit cards,” he said.

Spense is already working with multiple regulated entities and sees an opportunity in serving the underbanked population. The startup’s modular architecture and API-first model offer a path for faster go-to-market execution, a growing priority for both traditional banks and new-age fintechs.

“Spense is solving one of the most overlooked problems in Indian finance—access,” said Pratekk Agarwaal, General Partner at GrowthCap Ventures. “Millions are excluded not because they’re unworthy of credit, but because the rails to reach them didn’t exist.”