[Funding alert] Neo-banking fintech startup, NiYO raises $35M in Series B led by Horizons Ventures, Tencent

Bengaluru-based digital banking and fintech startup NiYO Solutions on Tuesday said that it has raised $35 million in Series B round led by Horizons Ventures, Tencent and existing investor, JS Capital LLC. With this, the total funding raised by NiYO stands at $49 million.

According to the company, the latest round of funding will be used to accelerate the development and rollout of new product offerings as well for expanding its distribution and marketing.

With this round of funding, the company is also looking to expand into international markets, particularly in emerging economies that offer similar opportunities for digital disruption through a 'Neo-Bank' concept.

Speaking on the fund raise, Vinay Bagri, Co-founder and CEO of NiYO, said,

“Our core focus on customer value and customer service is paying rich dividends with a strong growth across business metrics in the last 12 months. With this fresh round of funding, we aim to fortify our service suite and further accelerate our growth.”

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Founded in 2015 by Vinay Bagri and Virender Bisht, NiYO is an alternate payments mechanism for the salaried to help them increase their cash flows by claiming tax-saving allowances on the CTC disbursed by the employer.

Sanjay Swamy, Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners, said,

“From our first meeting with Vinay and Viren, we were excited by the vision of bringing a ‘neo-banking’ experience to the blue-collar segment - helping drive the benefits of digitisation, financial inclusion, and to the hard-working masses in India.”

NiYO claims to have a large presence in the blue-collared salaried segment through NiYO Bharat Payroll Solution, where it drives financial inclusion with tech innovations by providing banking services hitherto available only to the privileged segment.

Virender Bisht, Co-founder and CTO, NiYO, said,

“Customer centricity and technology-led solutions are the bedrock of our product innovation process. We are thankful to our customers, banking partners, and investors for the faith they have shown in our team. With this investment, we are doubling down on our mission to improve our customers' banking experiences and create value for all stakeholders”.

In January 2018, the company had raised close to $13.2 million in Series A funding from Silicon Valley-based Social Capital, family office of Jonathan Soros, JS Capital LLC, and Horizon Ventures. Existing investor, Prime Venture Partners had also participated in this round.

According to the company, NiYO is already serving around one million users and is aiming to service close to five million users in the next three years.

At present, it currently operates in two major business lines - NiYO Bharat Payroll, which provides modern salary account for India’s large blue-collar workforce and NiYO Global Card, which is targeted at Indians travelling abroad.

With corporate offices in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi, the company has a sales presence in more than 20 states and union territories. It has a client base of 5,000 companies and employs around 800 people.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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