India’s FPL Technologies Lands $4.5M To Modernize Credit

FPL Technologies, an Indian startup that is less than a year old, has raised $4.5 million in a funding round led by Matrix Partners India, with Sequoia Capital India and others also contributing, according to a report.

The company, which is based in Pune, aims to modernize the credit card industry and improve consumers’ experiences with credit in the country.

Anurag Sinha, co-founder and CEO of FPL Technologies, said his company will build a full-stack solution to completely reinvent the process of obtaining credit cards in India.

Although India allows for hundreds of millions of people to secure loans from lenders, less than 25 million people in the country are credit card holders – and the ones who do have credit cards do not generally have good experiences. Another problem is the lack of security when shopping online with a credit card.

Much of the problem stems from the use of outdated credit card systems and technologies. Sinha said he wants to update old methods like having to meet someone in person or talk to a banking rep on the phone to get a card.

FPL Technologies aims to build its own digital credit card service in the next few months. Its current app, called OneScore, will check a person’s credit score and help to improve it without selling customer data to a third party. Since launching a few months ago, the app has gained over 100,000 users. These are the people who will have the first chance to access the company’s mobile credit card, Sinha said.

“When they presented a plan to modernize credit cards in India, it immediately resonated with the Sequoia India team,” said Shailesh Lakhani, managing director of Sequoia Capital India. “It’s a delight to partner with them as they work on developing more flexible, affordable and easier to use financial products for Indian consumers.”