Open finance startup Upswing has secured $4 million in a new funding round. The company will use the money to develop plug-and-play platforms for open finance.
Upswing Financial Technologies, a Mumbai-based open finance B2B ecosystem enabler, has received $4 million from QED Investors and a group of other fintech pioneers. The investment will also be utilised to assist fintechs and consumer tech firms in providing seamless financial services.
QED, a fintech-focused fund, based in Alexandria, has supported 25 startups worldwide, including Nubank, Credit Karma, and SoFi. Its investors are looking for revolutionary financial services startups in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe, as well as Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
Upswing was created in 2021 by ex-bankers Anupam Bagchi and Nihar Gupta. Prior to joining Upswing, both were senior career bankers with companies such as Kotak, Axis, Standard Chartered, and NPCI. In their leadership capacities, they also contributed to the development of neobank Jupiter.
Anupam Bagchi, cofounder of Upswing, stated, “Upswing’s open finance-as-a-service platform is highly configurable, easy, and modular, and will considerably decrease the integration efforts of consumer tech firms to launch financial products including savings accounts, deposits, and lending services.”
At the moment, consumers will choose to access their financial services through any digital interface, which may or may not be owned by a bank, according to Bagchi.
Partner and Asia head at QED Investors, Sandeep Patil, said, “The next 10 years will see consumer businesses offering banking and financial solutions everywhere. Upswing will be a critical ecosystem participant, providing consumer-centric solutions as well as the necessary compliance and security infrastructure.”
The round had the participation of Better Capital, Amara VC, Multiply Ventures, Capier Investments, and Utsav Somani from AngelList, Kunal Shah of CRED, Rajan Bajaj of slice, Jiten Gupta of Jupiter, Lalit Keshre of Groww, Shivashish Chatterjee of DMI Finance, Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal, Sumit Gwalani and Sujith Narayanan of Epifi, Anurag Sinha of One Card.
Meanwhile, fintech (financial technology) businesses have recently made headlines for either raising funding from investors or pursuing acquisitions. For example, the finance upstart Perfios would pay more than $80 million for Karza Technologies. Mosambee has acquired Benow, a BNPL-focused financial firm. On February 23, Xoxoday received $30 million in funding from Giift, which is supported by Apis Partners LLP.
