[Funding Alert] Insight Partners makes its first Indian fintech investment, leads $15.5M Series-A round in BharatPe
The company said that it plans to deploy the funding on scaling operations, while pursuing its mission of empowering millions of merchants with UPI payments.
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Merchant-focussed payments startup BharatPe on Thursday said that it has raised $15.5 million in Series A funding. US-based Insight Partners led the round, which saw participation from existing investors Sequoia, and BEENEXT.
In a statement, the company said that it plans to deploy the funding on scaling operations while pursuing its mission of empowering millions of merchants with UPI payment within the next two years.
The company had earlier raised a seed round of $2 million in October from BEENEXT, and Sequoia Capital India.
BharatPe is said to pursue its mission of empowering millions of merchants with UPI payment.
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On the announcement, Ashneer Grover, CEO and Co-founder of BharatPe said,
“We are ecstatic and thankful to partner with Insight Partners and become their first investment in an Indian centered business. The funding will fuel our mission of democratising digital payments for merchants, and make UPI a preferred way to pay.”
New Delhi-based BharatPe is providing merchants with interoperable UPI QR codes for accepting all payments from UPI on banks. Co-founded in 2018 by Ashneer, and Shashvat Nakrani, the company is working towards driving the adoption of UPI among merchants, and has established operations in 11 cities namely, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Chandigarh, and Jaipur.
Providing a single interface for all UPI apps (including Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM, MobiKwik, Freecharge, Truecaller, and 100 others), the company empowers the merchants to accept UPI payments for free through the BharatPe QR. Further, merchants can sign up instantly and start receiving funds immediately in their bank account.
Vinny Pujji, Insight Partners, stated,
"Our partnership with BharatPe provides us with a window into one of the fastest growing fintech markets globally. We are delighted to partner with the team and believe that this investment will further accelerate their adoption in India.”
According to the founders, the company today serves over 600,000 merchants in 11 cities, and aims to become the utility app for more than 10 million offline merchants in India for all their business needs.
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