Former BharatPe executives founded OTPless raises $3.5M in a pre-Series A round

Authentication and access management platform OTPless has raised $3.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India).

The round also saw participation from Venture Highway, FJ Labs and Piper Serica.

Prior to this round, the startup raised $2.7 million in a seed funding round from Neeraj Arora, Kunal Shah, Amrish Rau, Jitendra Gupta, Utsav Somani, Amit Jain, Fabrice Grinda, and Luke Skertich.

The current round brings its all-time raise to $6.5 million. 

Expanding global presence and services

With this round of funding, OTPless plans to expand its global presence and service beyond authentication and into authorisation.

The startup will also focus on challenging the established players such as Auth0, Clerk, Stytch, Descope and Transmit Security. 

“Our vision is to revolutionise user authentication by making it simpler, faster, and more secure. This funding will help us scale our operations and enhance our technology to meet the growing global demand,” said Bhavik Koladiya, co-founder and CEO of OTPless.

Who are the founders?

OTPless was founded by former BharatPe executives Bhavik Koladiya, Satyam Nathani and Tanmay Sagar.

The startup aims to enable users to sign up and sign in on websites and apps via WhatsApp and other methods. It believes that this approach simplifies the process for users and eliminates the need for OTPs.

“We are committed to providing the best possible experience for our users and partners, and this investment will enable us to continue innovating and expanding our capabilities,” Koladiya added.

Enabling developers to integrate SDK and APIs

The startup has developed an online platform that supports various social sign-in methods, including Google, iMessage, Microsoft, Github, Slack, UPI and modern protocols like Passkeys, Network Auth, Protected SMS and Device fingerprinting.

Interestingly, Developers can easily integrate OTPless’s SDKs and APIs, going live within minutes using pre-built UIs or customising from scratch.

Planning to introduce new features and integrations

OTPless plans to introduce new features and integrations that will further simplify the authentication process for users and developers.

These include additional social sign-in options, enhanced biometric authentication methods, passkeys, adaptive auth and advanced security features to protect against emerging threats.

The Surat-based startup claims that more than 5,000 companies and 20,000 developers worldwide use the platform to authenticate over 30 million users.