India’s Zolve raises $15m seed round

Blume Ventures also participated, as did a number of notable angel investors such as Kunal Shah, the founder of Indian financial technology start-up Cred, Rahul Mehta, a managing director at DST Global, and Rahul Kishore, a senior managing director at Coatue Capital. It also marks the first India investment by US-based Founder Collective, an early investor in Uber.

Zolve was set up in December by serial entrepreneur Raghunandan G, co-founder of TaxiForSure, to provide Indians overseas and foreigners in India with financial products that are often difficult to access without local credit histories. The idea is that expatriates needn’t rebuild their financial profile to open bank accounts, borrow, or invest. Zolve estimates this is an $85 billion market.

“In an increasingly connected world, though people are moving across countries at an accelerated pace, the global financial systems are archaic and fragmented, creating headwinds for a global citizen,” G said in a statement. “With Zolve, we aim to create a financial world beyond borders that provides equitable access to global financial products on one single platform.”

Accel and Blume were also investors in TaxiForSure, a ride-hailing app launched in 2011 and raised at least $40 million before being acquired by DST-backed rival Ola in 2015. Ola paid $200 million for the company in an attempt to put pressure on Uber’s Indian presence. Ola integrated TaxiForSure into its own operations and shuttered the business as a separately branded entity in 2016.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Financials
• Early-stage
• India
• Lightspeed Venture Partners
• Accel Partners
• seed
• Financial Services