[Funding alert] Fintech startup Niro raises $3.5M led by Elevar Equity

Fintech startup Niro raised $3.5 million in a seed round led by Elevar Equity. The round also saw participation from multiple angel investors, including CRED's Kunal Shah, Bala Parthasarthy, Managing Partner at Prime Ventures, Nitin Gupta, and the Patni Family office, according to a statement shared by the firm.

Currently a team of 16-17 people, Niro will use the funds to expand the team and develop their offerings.

Founded in March 2021 by Aditya Kumar, who earlier founded lending platform Qbera, and former Citibank vice president Sankalp Mathur — Niro will provide embedded credit products to consumer internet brands, who can then offer it to their customers.

"We believe that embedded finance is one such innovation, and Niro aims to leverage the power of embedded finance to unlock potential for all customer-facing digital platforms to become consumer lending fintechs. This will enable them to offer their consumers bespoke and competitive financial products combined with a frictionless all-in-one platform experience," said Aditya Kumar, Co-founder and CEO, Niro, in the statement.

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The fintech firm's lead investor, Elevar Equity, is based in the US and has backed players including lending platform InCred, Gurugram-based Indifi, and SarvaGram.

“Elevar makes only two to three investments per year on average. We look for entrepreneurs with a deep focus on and understanding of the end customer, who can build highly differentiated, scalable distribution models. Aditya and Sankalp’s respective personal journeys towards understanding the challenges in the fintech lending space and their clarity to target a financially underserved market through a differentiated strategy instantly resonated with us. We are excited to support Niro in its quest to build a game-changing venture that can redefine the mass accessibility of credit,” said Jyotsna Krishnan, Managing Partner, Elevar Equity.

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