Team StartupCity

• Kiwi secures $24 million in fresh funding to expand credit offerings on UPI.
• The company plans to launch UPI based credit lines within six months.
• Over 200,000 RuPay credit cards already issued since its 2023 launch.

Fintech startup Kiwi has raised $24 million in a funding round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, with participation from existing investors including Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, and Stellaris Venture Partners. The startup will use the new capital to launch credit lines on UPI (Unified Payments Interface) in partnership with banks, aiming to introduce the service within the next six months.

Founded in 2022 by former bankers Anup Agarwal, Siddharth Mehta, and Mohit Bedi, Kiwi already offers RuPay credit cards in collaboration with Yes Bank and AU Small Finance Bank. These cards allow users to make payments using UPI, India’s most popular retail payment system. Now, Kiwi is looking to take the next step by enabling pre-approved credit lines that can be accessed directly from a user's UPI linked savings account.

This move comes after the Reserve Bank of India approved the credit on UPI model in September 2023. Recent reports suggest that banks are becoming more open to adopting this model, creating a strong opportunity for fintechs like Kiwi to innovate and expand.

Also Read: Kiwi Secures $23 Million in Series B Round Led through Vertex Ventures

Co-founder Anup Agarwal, believes the integration of credit and UPI could shift consumer habits in a big way. “We are bullish on credit lines through UPI. It combines UPI’s reach with the flexibility of short-term credit”, he said.

Since launching its services in 2023, Kiwi has issued over 200,000 RuPay credit cards and processes more than 5 million transactions each month across 600 cities in India. With UPI processing nearly 19 billion transactions monthly, the addition of credit lines could mark a major shift in India’s digital payment landscape.