India’s VC-backed True Balance raises $23m
True Balance, an Indian digital payments services provider whose backers include SoftBank Ventures Korea, has raised a $23 million bridge round from a group of Japanese and Korean investors.
Japanese participants in the round include Line Ventures, the VC unit of messaging app Line, while Korean investors include venture capital firm TS Investments, financial institution Shinhan Bank and search engine Naver. The company will use the new capital to expand its team and develop new products for Indian consumers.
True Balance’s flagship application is an app to help users check their prepaid SIM card balance without the need for internet connectivity, recharge their balances online, and connect them with promotions from telecom operators. As of September 2017 the company said over 50 million people had downloaded the True Balance app through the Google Play Store.
Currently True Balance is expanding its services to include electronic payments after obtaining a mobile wallet license last year. Its payments strategy includes peer-to-peer transactions, domestic money remittances, and cashless payments for both online and offline retail purchases.
Balance Hero, the parent of True Balance, was founded in 2014 by South Korean entrepreneur Charlie Lee, who first came to India in 2002 as the head of India for Real Networks. Most of its investment capital to date has been raised from Japanese and Korean investors: SoftBank invested an undisclosed amount of Series A funding in 2016, and Korean VC firms Bon Angels Partners and Mega Investment contributed an undisclosed amount of seed funding in 2015.
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