US immigrant services neobank Zolve gains $40m Series A funding
Neobank Zolve has gained $40 million in Series A funding, one of the largest such rounds in India to date.
Raghunandan G, CEO and founder of Zolve
The round was led by Partners of DST Global, with participation from Tiger Global, Alkeon Capital and existing investors, Accel and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
The funding raises the 10-month-old company’s valuation to $210 million. Zolve provides immigrants bound to the US with access to FDIC-insured bank accounts, high-limit credit cards, and debit cards on the basis of their home country credit score. It negates the need for a social security number or US credit history.
Zolve aims to become a full-stack financial services provider with planned products for instant remittance, insurance, and loans.
Since launching in September 2021, it claims 70,000+ customers from Australia, Canada, Germany, India and the UK.
The new round of funding comes seven months after a seed round of $15 million.
With the latest funding, Zolve says it intends to enhance the user experience, allowing users to open US accounts in minutes. The funds will also help expansion of the service to other nationalities.
In addition, Zolve is looking to grow its partner network and recruit extra staff in the US (San Francisco) and India (Bangalore).
Raghunandan G, CEO and founder of Zolve, says: “While we intended to start with a small cohort of 500 users, we were oversubscribed by almost 90x from working professionals and students within the first few weeks. This… clearly demonstrates that there is a tangible need for a service that provides global citizens equitable access to financial products.”
Accel’s Anand Daniel added: “Zolve is among the few start-ups I’ve seen that achieved product-market fit right out of the gate. Given that the US is a country with immigrants in its DNA, it’s surprising how long it has taken someone to solve the issues that new immigrants experience with the traditional banking system.”
