Fintech Startup Pelocal Raises $5 Million to Scale WhatsApp Payments
- Mumbai based fintech Pelocal secures $5M in Series A funding led by UNLEASH Capital and Unicorn India Ventures.
- The startup enables enterprises to engage and collect payments via WhatsApp.
- Pelocal aims to scale its AI powered payments orchestration platform across India and beyond.
Fintech startup Pelocal has raised $5 million in Series A funding to expand its WhatsApp based payments orchestration platform. The round was led by UNLEASH Capital Partners and Unicorn India Ventures, with participation from several angel investors.
Founded in 2021, Pelocal helps large enterprises manage customer acquisition, engagement, and collections through WhatsApp, which has over 700 million active users in India. The company currently supports 40+ enterprises in sectors like banking, transit, and utilities, and serves over 5 million users monthly.
The startup is now doubling down on its mission to bring last mile digital payments to the masses using familiar messaging platforms and AI driven technology.
Vivekanand Tripathi, Founder and CEO of Pelocal, said “Most digital communication today is either peer-to-peer or one way updates. We want to change that by enabling real time, two way transactions right within WhatsApp”. He added, “This funding will help us accelerate our vision and bring impactful solutions to more people”.
Pelocal is tapping into the rising trend of conversational commerce, where chats turn into transactions. Vikas Garg, Co-founder of Pelocal, emphasized the company’s goal to deliver world class solutions at the intersection of payments, communication, and enterprise tech.
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Backing the startup’s vision, Natsuki Sugai, Managing Partner at UNLEASH Capital Partners, noted that Pelocal is solving a real world problem for Indian businesses by embedding payments directly into chat interfaces. Anil Joshi, Managing Partner at Unicorn India Ventures, added, “Conversational payments are the future, and Pelocal is ready to lead this shift”.
The company previously raised $2 million in seed funding in October 2024, also led by Unicorn India Ventures.
