Blog

Global neobank Zolve has raised $15 million in a seed round led by Accel Partners and Lightspeed Ventures. The round marked the first investment by Founder Collective, an investor in Airtable and Uber, in an Indian startup. 

The round also saw participation from Blume Ventures and notable angel investors, including Dr Ashish Gupta, ex-Helion MD; Greg Kidd, angel investor in Twitter and Ripple; Kunal Shah, Founder of Cred; Rahul Mehta, Managing Partner at DST Global; and Rahul Kishore, Senior Managing Director, Coatue Capital. 

Founded by Raghunandan in December 2020, Zolve is a cross-border neobank focussed on catering to the global citizen. The team believes this to be a $85 billion market. 

The funds will be used to build the core technology platform, the team, and marketing efforts.

“In an increasingly connected world, though people are moving across countries at an accelerated pace, the global financial systems are archaic and fragmented, creating headwinds for a global citizen. With Zolve, we aim to create a financial world beyond borders that provides equitable access to global financial products on one single platform.

“Our cross-border neobank will enable global citizens to access financial products seamlessly, save money and invest it further, helping them be financially free to pursue their ambition, no matter where they are, ” said Raghunandan G, Founder of Zolve.

Anand Daniel, Partner at Accel, said, “The global citizen community is largely underserved in terms of access to financial services and we believe that there is a huge market opportunity for Zolve. Raghu has a proven track record as a founder and we are delighted to partner with him again, on his latest venture. The team’s passion and commitment are commendable and we are positive that Zolve will create tremendous value for this community.”

Raghunandan’s earlier venture Taxiforsure was acquired by Ola for $200 million in 2015. Post exiting Taxiforsure, he has been an angel investor in the likes of Ninjacart, Bounce, and Vedantu to name a few. 

“We’re excited to back Raghu and the exceptional Zolve team in solving for this significant opportunity. Individuals with financial identities in multiple geographies need seamless global financial solutions and we believe the team’s strong identification with the problem will enable them to deliver compelling and innovative financial experiences,” said Bejul Somaia, Lightspeed India Partners.

David Frankel, Managing Partner at Founder Collective, and an early investor in Coupang, Olo, and PillPack, said: “It is an absurd reality that global citizens have to rebuild their financial profile when they move to a new country. Zolve solves this problem by helping them get fair access to a suite of modern financial tools so they can participate in the new economy on an equal footing from day one. As one of India’s most successful entrepreneurs in recent years, Raghunandan is in a unique position to help this startup grow at home and abroad.”