Startup Card91 Raises $13M in Pre-Series A Funding

Global payment issuance infrastructure platform Card91, which powers B2B payments and lending on a card, has announced a pre-Series A funding round for $13 million, according to a YourStory report Wednesday (March 30).

Card91, set up in August 2020 by founders Vineet Saxena, Ajay Pandey and Kush Srivastava, is building a plug-and-play payment issuance infrastructure, letting businesses and banks roll out co-branded cards.

“Having marquee investors back us strengthens our belief in the product,” the founders said, per the report. “The funding raised will be used to expand our issuance product offerings and reach multiple businesses across India and to start our foray internationally. It will also help in building our team strength and capabilities, and launch related ancillary products.”

Saxena, Pandey and Srivastava also said that digitization has been speeding up in the last few years for a variety of industries, including payments.

“We believe the next 100 million users in India will be accessing credit via cards issued by brands and businesses,” the founders continued. “Launching card programs is a difficult process since it involves integrating with multiple players. Our goal is to simplify this process for businesses by providing a plug-and-play solution.”

The report noted that the round was led by Infinity Ventures, Point72 Ventures and Sabre Partners, with other participation coming from Emphasis Ventures (EMVC), Commerce Ventures and high-profile FinTech Angel Investors.

In other related B2B news, earlier this month, PYMNTS wrote that Funding Circle has permanently banned new investors from its retail platform.

Read more: Business Lender Funding Circle Shuts Off Retail Platform to New Investments

The decision was announced as the company shared its results, showing how the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending sector has struggled in the wake of additional oversight and the continued effects of the pandemic.

“There’s been a big shift; the industry has shrunk severely,” chief executive Lisa Jacobs said, adding this had been “quite a difficult decision.”

P2P lending has seen regulatory crackdowns in the U.K. for years, with the Financial Conduct Authority making new rules as of 2019.