Vinita Rathi

Edtech firm Scaler ropes in Abhinav Vijayvargiya as its new CFO Scaler, an Indian edtech firm, has appointed Abhinav Vijayvargiya as its Chief Financial Officer. He will lead the company's financial functions. Vijayvargiya brings over 14 years of experience from tech startups and FMCG giants. He aims to steer Scaler towards profitability and strengthen financial discipline. Scaler is also expanding into deep-tech and AI, partnering with startups and IIT Roorkee. https://lnkd.in/dWabs4yi #Scaler #Edtech #CFOAppointment #AbhinavVijayvargiya #StartupFinance #AI #DeepTech #IITRoorkee #Profitability #Leadership

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NRI-focused fintech startup Belong - NRI savings & investments has raised $5 million in a seed round led by Elevation Capital. The round also saw participation from: ✔️Relentless Ventures ✔️Angel investors including: • Abhiraj Singh Bhal & Varun Khaitan (Urban Company) • Akshant Goyal (CFO, Zomato) • Varun Alagh (Mamaearth) • Vineet Sethi (PayU) • Aditya Sharma (McKinsey) 🚀 Use of Funds • Acquire regulatory licences • Expand product suite • Grow in NRI-heavy regions: Gulf, UK, US What Belong Offers Founded in 2024 by Ankur Choudhary, Savitri Bobde, Ayush Sing, and Sai Sankar M, Belong launched with a USD Fixed Deposit product in partnership with Indian banks at GIFT City, offering: • Tax-free returns in India • Rupee depreciation protection • Doorstep KYC for NRIs • Easy repatriation 📈 Licences & Expansion Belong has secured: • Payment Services Provider (PSP) licence • Broker-Dealer licence from IFSCA Next up: • Launching: Mutual funds, Indian & US equities, insurance, cards • Tools live: FD rates explorer, GIFT Nifty tracker, rupee-dollar monitor, NRI tax status calculator • India tax filing service for NRIs in the pipeline #FundingNews #Belong #FintechForNRIs #SeedRound #ElevationCapital #GiftCity #NRIInvestments #StartupFunding #WealthTech #IndiaToGlobal

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Tech, AI will be central to Fino's SFB transition, bringing us closer to FinTechs: MD Rishi Gupta “If someone is setting up a bank today, technology is all about AI. AI will be one of our central themes, bringing us closer to FinTechs,” Fino Payments Bank Ltd’s MD & CEO Rishi Gupta tells ETBFSI as it speeds up for SFB transition. What kind of lending will Fino focus on, How will Fino build its branch and asset-centre network, what sort of talent will it hire as it enters lending, revenue contribution and how critical is the ongoing technology migration to its SFB roadmap? Story by Shrishti Sharma #Tech #AI #Fino #SFB #RBI #FinoPaymentsBank #Revenue #Lending #MFI #SecuredLoans https://lnkd.in/gtQ9fZNJ

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Nexus Venture Partners Raises $700M Fund to Back India–US Tech Innovation Nexus Venture Partners has closed its eighth fund at $700M, led by partners Suvir Sujan , Anup Gupta, Jishnu B. and Abhishek Sharma The firm will continue investing across AI, enterprise software, consumer and fintech, with a focus on global-scale companies built from India. Nexus has backed category-leading ventures such as Postman, Apollo.io, Zepto, Delhivery and Rapido. With this new fund, the firm reinforces a consistent thesis: India-born innovation with global ambitions continues to command long-term conviction. ———————- Break Into VC™ batch 2026 waitlist is open! Apply at https://lnkd.in/gZwAAfWK

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Huge news for Mumbai's Pulse! They've secured a major £100 Million funding line from global investment firm Castlelake. Founder & CEO Chirag Shah is leading the charge to expand their AI-powered SME lending operations deep into the UK market. A massive vote of confidence! #fundingnews #ai #global #mumbaifunding #mumbaistartups #tienews #investment #saas

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New Delhi–headquartered deeptech startup Chakr Innovation has raised $23 million (₹193.5 crore) in a Series C round led by Iron Pillar, with participation from SBI Cap Ventures, ONGC, IAN, and Inflexor. The funds will be used to expand manufacturing capacity, accelerate global growth, drive backward integration, and strengthen R&D, the company said. Founded by Kushagra Srivastava , Chakr Innovation develops material science technologies. Its products include Chakr Shield, India’s first certified retrofit emission control device (RECD) for diesel engines, an IoT-enabled remote DG monitoring system, and metal-air battery solutions. Srivastava said the funding will help establish India’s first dedicated materials science centre focused on critical materials, marking a key step in building world-class technologies from India. Team Chakr✅ Kushagra Srivastava | Bharti Singhla | Anmol Khandelwal | Pankkaj Dhakite | Neha Pandey | Vaishali Sharma | Akanksha Barnwal #chakrInnovation #deeptech #funding #manufacturingStartups #innovativeStartups #startupUpdates #startupro

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"Made in India, built for the world." Neokred Co-Founder Rohith Reji announces a major expansion into the Middle East, exporting India’s battle-hardened fintech infrastructure to power global digital transformation! This move strengthens the fintech corridor between India and the Middle East, capitalizing on mirrored digital transformation trends and creating global mobility for Indian tech talent. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gWNV4ddr Shwetank Verma Rajul Garg Gaganpreet Luthra Dinesh Singh Ravi Srivastava

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Stable Money, a wealthtech startup in India, has raised $25 million in a pre-Series C funding round at a valuation of $175 million, led by Peak XV Partners. The funding also saw participation from Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners), RTP Global, and Fundamentum Partnership. The funding will be used to strengthen the company’s core platform, broaden access to complementary savings products, and scale teams across key functions. PRAMUGDHA MAMGAIN's report:

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Mannjal, a full-stack unified lending platform, has raised Rs 17.5 crore in a seed funding round led by Arali Ventures and B Capital. The funding round saw participation from Sparrow Capital and Gemba Capital. https://lnkd.in/eMbB6rcn

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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀 ₹𝟭𝟱𝟬 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗙𝗧 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗕 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 The Hosteller has raised 150 crore in a Series B round led by PROMAFT Partners and V3 Ventures, with participation from ITI Growth Opportunities Fund, Merisis Wealth Trust, and prominent family offices. Pranav Dangi, Founder and CEO, The Hosteller, said, “We started The Hosteller because Indian travellers deserved better than a choice between overpriced hotels and unreliable budget stays. Soham Avlani, Founding General Partner, PROMAFT Partners, stated, “India’s travel market is being reshaped by a generation that values experience over star ratings, and we believe The Hosteller is best positioned to lead that shift." Arjun Vaidya, Co-Founder, V3 Ventures, shared, “We have been with Pranav since the Series A in 2024, and what he and his team have delivered since is remarkable, including the expansion pace, the consistency of experience across 75+ properties, and the operational discipline." Mohit Gulati, CIO, ITI Growth Opportunities Fund, added, “India’s experiential travel segment is still early, and Pranav has built the only brand in this space that a traveller actively plans around." Read more: https://lnkd.in/gMzig67e #News #Funding #TheHosteller

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Pelocal Fintech Private Limited raises $5M for AI-powered payments Noida-based FinTech Pelocal secured $5 million in funding led by UNLEASH Capital Partners and Unicorn India Ventures, with angel investor participation. The company provides an 𝗔𝗜-𝗹𝗲𝗱 payments orchestration platform that embeds payments into WhatsApp and other messaging platforms for enterprise customer engagement. Founded in 2021 by Vivekanand Tripathi and Vikas Garg, Pelocal serves over 40 enterprises across BFSI, transit, and utilities. Total payment value has grown sixfold since last fundraise, with annualized volumes exceeding $500 million. The company operates at over $1.5 million annual revenue run rate and expects to reach $10 million in the next 18-24 months. The funding will support product development and go-to-market strategy expansion as conversational commerce and embedded payments gain traction in India. Pelocal focuses specifically on embedding end-to-end payment journeys for enterprises in vertical sectors rather than offering broad conversational AI suites. Source: https://lnkd.in/ejfmD9up This and more FinTech news in my newsletter— sign up here: https://lnkd.in/gNimrjeR Find this helpful? [ 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 ] Anything to add about this subject? [𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁] Nice story. Next! [ 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 ]

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India's retail investing boom brought millions to the market. But more access hasn't meant better portfolios. Our Co-founder Sandeep Jethwani spoke to businessline on why the wealth-tech sector is moving from transactions to outcomes and what that shift actually looks like. He talked about: 6 in 10 portfolios uploaded for review are underperforming their own benchmark indices Affluent investors are increasingly willing to pay for outcomes, not just access Investor behaviour across tier-1, tier-2, and tier-3 cities is converging Link to the full story here: https://lnkd.in/gJzfNQsw

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🚀 Nexus Venture Partners Secures USD 700 Million for Fund VIII Nexus Venture Partners has successfully raised USD 700 million for its eighth fund, matching the size of its 2023 fund, to bolster its focus on early-stage investments across India and the United States. The fund will target inception, seed, and Series A stage companies specializing in artificial intelligence (AI), enterprise software, consumer technology, and financial technology. Nexus will continue its dual-market strategy, backing both cross-border Indian software ventures and US-based companies. The firm, which manages USD 3.2 billion across all its funds, aims to support approximately 15 companies in each geography. Nexus Venture Partners has a portfolio of over 130 companies, including Postman and Zepto, and has recorded over 30 successful exits. Suvir Sujan, Co-founder/Managing Director at Nexus Venture Partners Read the story: https://ow.ly/Y04Z50XEwYj #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #EarlyStageInvesting #AIFunding #FintechStartups #TechInvesting #IndiaStartups 

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IGNOSIS, an Ahmedabad fintech startup, has secured $4 million in funding led by Peak XV Partners’s Surge program, aimed at strengthening its platform for account aggregation and financial data intelligence. Founded in 2022 by Nirav Prajapati and Chintan Sheth offers a stack that enables lenders and financial institutions to access and process user-consented financial data via India’s Account Aggregator (AA) framework. One of their recent client case studies: Whizdm Finance leveraged Ignosis’s Multi-AA routing solution to boost AA success rates by ~20% and improve disbursals by ~4.5 %. Pioneers Pulse Take: -> Ignosis is not just riding a regulatory wave — it's becoming infrastructure itself. As fintech scales and lending becomes more data-driven, platforms that can reliably orchestrate cross-institution consented data will be the backbone of innovation. The funding is the catalyst, but network effects, trust, and reliability will be their moat.

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PowerUp Money, a wealthtech platform focused on mutual fund advisory, has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from existing investors Accel, Blume Ventures, and Kae Capital. The round also saw continued support from 8i Ventures and DevC and comes just six months after the company secured $7.2 million in seed funding. Prateek Jindal 🔗 Read full article link in comment #fundingnews #wealthtech #powerup #fund #funding #seedfunding

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Big move in India’s wealthtech space: Otto Money has raised $1.3M in a pre-seed round led by Pravega Ventures, with participation from angels and existing backers. ​ What stands out isn’t just the funding headline it’s the product direction: Otto Money is betting on AI-driven wealth guidance that helps retail investors make clearer, goal-led decisions in a market where portfolios are often fragmented across apps and asset classes. ​ Kudos to the founding team Apurv Gupta and Ankur Lahoti for pushing into a category where trust, explainability, and long-term outcomes matter as much as UX. ​ The company says it will use the capital over the next 12–18 months to strengthen its AI models, sharpen personalisation, expand goal-based advisory capabilities, and hire across engineering + data science. ​ At The AI World Organization, we track these inflection points because they show how AI is moving from “features” to real decision support in high-stakes domains like personal finance. ​ Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/gjSRepur If you’re building at the intersection of AI + fintech + real user outcomes, meet us in Singapore at AI World Summit 2026 Asia & Global AI Awards (May 28, 2026): https://lnkd.in/g5Pd_n_U ​ #WealthTech #FinTech #StartupFunding #VentureCapital #AngelInvesting #AI #WealthManagement #PersonalFinance #IndiaStartups #BengaluruStartups #PravegaVentures #OttoMoney #SingaporeEvents

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