Fintech startup Slice turns unicorn after raising $220M in funding

Bengaluru-based fintech startup Slice, which issues cards to young professionals, has now turned into a unicorn startup after raising $220 million in a funding round at a valuation of over $1 billion. With this, Slice becomes the 41st Indian startup to achieve unicorn status this year.

According to the startup, the new Series B funding round saw participation from top global investment firms like Tiger Global and Insight Partners. The round also saw participation from notable angel investors Guillaume Pusaz and Binny Bansal, as well as new and existing investors including Advent International’s Sunley House Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Anfa, Gunosy, Blume Ventures, and 8i.

Prior to this, The fintech startup had raised Rs 75 crore in a debt financing round from Northern Arc Capital, Vivriti Capital, Niyogin Fintech, and Credit Saison.

Founded in 2016 by Rajan Bajaj, Slice, with its online platform, enables users to pay bills, manage expenses and unlock rewards. It offers cards to new-age millennials and Gen Z, with an average age of 27, who have largely been refused credit cards by large banks due to inadequate credit scoring around this demographic.

At present, Their platform issues credit and payment cards, ‘Slice Super Card’, with Visa and SBM Bank India Ltd, allowing them to build credit scores and win rewards and discounts from payments.

With this round of funding, Slice aims to expand and strengthen its presence in the payments space, hire talent for the company, and expand its product offerings. Apart from this, it will also use a portion of the raised capital to fund its non-banking financial company (NBFC) arm, and scale its loan book.

The startup has recently announced its credit card product with a limit of Rs 2,000 for the new-to-credit population in India. It offers both digital and physical prepaid VISA cards with a credit line similar to credit cards.

The six-year-old fintech firm says that it issues over two lakh (200,000) cards a month and has a registered user base of 50 lakh (5 million). 

“At Slice, we believe that we have built a solid business model and will focus our energies now into growing and scaling the platform. We have been prudent with our business so far and burnt $4.5 million (in capital) over five years," said Rajan Bajaj, Founder & CEO at Slice.

He further said that the company is currently working on introducing a unified payments interface (UPI)-based payments on its app.

“Slice has built a product that customers love, which we expect will result in the continued growth and market share gains. We are excited to partner with Rajan and the team as they expand access to credit and deliver best-in-class customer experience," said Alex Cook, Partner at Tiger Global.

"There is a large opportunity in the credit and payment space in India, and Slice is well-positioned to become the leader in the industry. We look forward to this partnership with Slice as they continue to scale up and grow," said Deven Parekh, Managing Director at Insight Partners.

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