Neobank Kaleidofin raises Rs 74 cr in Series B funding led by Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

Representative image.

Neobank Kaleidofin has raised $10 million (Rs 74 crore) in a Series B funding round led by the Dell family's charitable, non-profit private foundation Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

Existing institutional investors Oiko Credit, Flourish Ventures, Omidyar Network, Blume Ventures and Bharat Fund also participated in the round, the startup said. Total funding raised by Kaleidofin till date amounts to $18 million.

The company is a consumer-facing neobank like Jupiter, EpiFi, Niyo, Freo, and others. However, the startup focuses on the informal customer segment.

Neobanking platforms serve as a tech layer in tie-ups with banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) to provide banking and related services digitally.

Kaleidofin, founded in 2018 by Sucharita Mukherjee and Puneet Gupta, has over one million active transacting customers across India. It has created a localised and accessible footprint across 230 districts and 14 states in semi-urban and rural India.

It has four product offerings currently, KaleidoGoals, a goal-linked savings and investment-led solution; payment solutions under KaleidoPay; KiScore that uses artificial intelligence and big data to assess a consumer's credit health and help in underwriting; and KaleidoCredit, a 'credit as a platform' service for lending and debt capital markets use cases.

KaleidoPay allows customers who are unable to use the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to make digital as well as recurring payments.

Geeta Goel, country director, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India, said, "Access to customizable credit for nano-entrepreneurs can unleash a growth wave for enterprises and the economy, and also enable some to graduate to small and medium enterprises. Kaleidofin can play a key role in this movement based on its on-the-ground partnerships and the scientific process for risk assessment and pricing."

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India focuses on progress for children and families living in urban poverty.

It invests in education, financial services, jobs, and livelihoods that give India’s urban poor more opportunities while working with the government, social entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and other partners.

Kaleidofin said that to support the next phase of growth, it has appointed founding team members Natasha Jethanandani, who is tech chief, and Vipul Sekhsaria, who is chief networks officer, as co-founders.