ASPORA is a new fintech startup focused on serving the Indian diaspora. It’s done that well enough to pull in $50 million in a Series B round of funding. This round brings the company’s valuation up to $500 million. Sequoia Capital leads this investment, another huge sign of momentum for Aspora. This funding gets them further towards their vision of creating a full financial ecosystem tailored made for non-resident Indians (NRIs) all over the globe.
Created to make banking and remittance transactions easier, Aspora wants to help simplify the finances of those Indians living outside of their home country. Convenience is Job One. Indeed, convenience is first in the platform’s mission statement. It is purposefully creating a verticalized financial experience that covers remittances to long-term wealth-building opportunities.
Aspora is excited and preparing for some big national expansion plans! By the end of this year, the company expects to have set up shop in Canada, Singapore and Australia. The San Francisco-based company is preparing for a big national launch in the United States next month. This corridor is one of the top three in the world for remittances into India.
Last December, Aspora raised $35 million in their Series A funding round. Sequoia Capital led the round, with participation from Greylock, Y Combinator, Hummingbird Ventures and Global Founders Capital. After this round, Aspora’s valuation shot up to $150 million. So far, the startup has raised more than $99 million in funding.
Aspora’s CEO, Garg, who grew up in the UAE, emphasizes the company’s mission to leverage remittances as a starting point for expanding financial solutions tailored to the diaspora. He noted, “We want to use remittances as a wedge and build all the financial solutions that the diaspora needs, including banking, investing, insurance, lending in the home country, and products that help them take care of their parents.”
It’s a really remarkable feat that this platform has accomplished within the remittance space. It has increased its processed volume from $400 million to an incredible $2 billion per year. In fact, an incredible 80% of Aspora’s users are remitting money back into their accounts in India! This trend underscores the tremendous hunger for greater efficiency and reliability in remittance services.
Aspora plans to deepen its product line further in the coming months with a full-stack banking account catered explicitly for NRIs. Traditionally, opening such accounts can take weeks, if not several days. Aspora doesn’t want to inflate this process to more than a few minutes. The startup will be launching fixed deposit accounts for NRIs soon, he added. This will allow them to safely hedge their money in foreign currency.
Moreover, Aspora is developing a bill payment platform that will enable users to pay for essential services like rent and utilities directly from their accounts. Garg highlighted the challenges many NRIs face when navigating existing financial products: “While multiple financial products for non-resident Indians exist, they don’t know about them because there is no digital journey for them. They possibly use the same banking app as residents, which makes it harder for them to discover products catered towards them.”
In the past few months, Aspora has closed significant funding and kicked off some exciting programs. Now, it is poised to revolutionise the country’s financial landscape for Indians residing overseas. The company’s commitment to offering customizable solutions speaks to its grasp of the specific needs of the diaspora community.
The speed at which Aspora is able to bring these plans to fruition will be key to their long-term success. Luciana Lixandru from Sequoia Capital remarked on this approach: “Speed of execution, for me, is one of the main indicators in the early days of the future success of a company.”