Cross-border payments startup Dodo raises $1.1 million in led by Antler, 9Unicorns

Bengaluru-based fintech startup Dodo Payments has raised $1.1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Antler, 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts.

The round also saw participation from angel investors, including Nitin Gupta of Uni Cards and PayU, Maninder Gulati, Raymond Russell, formerly chief of staff at Boom Supersonic, Preethi Kasireddy, formerly a partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Nishant Verman, formerly Flipkart’s corporate development head.

Funding round and purpose

The latest investment comes after Dodo’s previous round closed on last year. Rishabh Goel and Ayush Agarwal founded the company in 2023 to help digital-first businesses handle international payments seamlessly. 

Dodo’s platform currently allows merchants to accept payments from more than 150 countries with a success rate exceeding 90%.

Purpose of fundraising

The startup plans to use the new funds to enhance its technology, introduce modules for subscriptions, billing, fraud detection and risk management, and establish local payment rails in more than 30 countries, including key regions like the European Union, the United Kingdom, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Brazil and Australia.

Product and unique offering

Dodo is the only solution powering global marketplaces for non-U.S. entities, offering more than 25 local payment methods like Apple Pay, Klarna, Affirm, Cash App, UPI and major card networks.

The platform is available in 14 languages and covers 86% of the global population. In addition to being PCI-DSS compliant, the startup aims to secure global certifications such as SOC 2, GDPR and ISO standards. 

In its initial phase, Dodo claims to have onboarded over 1,000 merchants across 30 countries and hopes to bring that number to more than 10,000 merchants worldwide by the end of the year. 

With the global digital economy expanding rapidly, Dodo aims to strengthen its infrastructure to help businesses process cross-border payments more efficiently.