Credit card payment startup, slice, is India’s 41st unicorn this year

Credit card payment platform, slice has become the 41st unicorn of 2021 after raising $220 million in a Series B round led by Tiger Global Management and Insight Partners. The company has raised the funds at over a valuation of $1 billion, as per an official announcement.

The other investors  in the round included Advent International’s Sunley House Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Anfa, Gunosy, Blume Ventures, and 8i. The credit card payments segment in India is growing and attracting investors due to the underlying factor of market penetration. slice’s rival, Cred is also in talks to raise funds at a more than $5 billion valuation, as per sources.

Even as most individuals in India have bank accounts and debit cards, only a sliver of this banking population has access to credit cards, which is less than 35 million, according to industry estimates. Moreover, the nation’s young credit-rating system covers only a tiny fraction of this population, making it tediously challenging for them to own a credit card.

slice claims to be addressing this gap through its super card, a prepaid visa card with a credit line that allows hundreds of millions of Indians to enjoy credit card-like benefits as well as to build their credit score. Users can sign up with slice in seconds, quickly get a virtual card (and get a physical card delivered to their home), and enjoy up to 2 per cent cashback on each transaction. slice has also made it easier and more convenient for users to pay their bills by letting them split the bill into 3 months instalments at zero cost, the fintech firm said. 

The company said that it has seen a 40 per cent month-on-month growth in user base at over 5 million and intends to use the funding to expand and strengthen its presence in the payments space, hire great talent, and expand its product offerings.

“Since the inception of the company, we’ve held a considerably different point of view from a typical start-up. The idea has never been to burn capital and acquire users forcefully, but to set up a sustainable and robust business. We’ve kept our heads down in the initial years and focused solely on simplifying the consumer journey and creating a cutting-edge risk underwriting system,” Rajan Bajaj, founder and CEO of slice said.

He added that the company’s superior product experience has made slice the most popular alternative to existing credit cards. It has also enabled us to serve not only the population with credit history, but also the massive new-to-credit population that banks have not penetrated.

“slice has built a product that customers love, which we expect will result in continued growth and market share gains,” Alex Cook, Partner at Tiger Global, said.

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