Karbon Card Raises $12 Mn Pre-Series A Funding Round The startup plans to use the funds to step up its product development, hiring plans, and operations
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Bengaluru-headquartered Karbon Card, a fintech offering corporate cards, on Thursday announced to have raised $12 million in a pre-Series A round from the US-based fintech Unicorn Ramp, Rainfall Ventures, Roka Works, Y Combinator, and other global investors.
The startup plans to use the funds to step up its product development, hiring plans and operations. It expects to double its headcount to 60 over the next 6 months.
"Excited to be partnering with Ramp, the global corporate card leader, to build the most customer-centric card platform for Indian startups and SMBs with a $20 billion market opportunity at present. We are solving a major challenge faced by Indian startups and small businesses while availing corporate cards from the banks that ask for a 110 per cent deposit guarantee, personal guarantees, and massive amount of documentation. Karbon's corporate cards eliminate all these hurdles and provide solutions in just five minutes," said Pei-fu Hsieh, co-founder and chief executive officer, Karbon Card.
Founded in 2019 by Pei-fu Hsieh, Amit Jangir, Kartik Jain, and Sunil Sinha, Karbon was selected by Y Combinator in the Summer 2021 batch and had earlier raised $3.5 million from Orios Venture Partner and the US-based 2AM VC.
"We are impressed with what Karbon has built so far and are looking forward to seeing them deliver more value for Indian SMBs and startups," added Karim Atiyeh, co-founder, and chief technology officer, Ramp.
The fintech, which makes money mostly off interchange fees, aims to solve a major problem for small businesses and startups by replacing the use of personal credit cards for company usage with corporate cards.
Using personal credit cards for company usage affects personal credit score, reimbursement hassles, and creates confusion to segregate personal and corporate expenses.
With over 1500 clients in less than two years of its launch, Karbon has reported a 30 per cent month-on-month growth in revenues despite the pandemic that slowed down corporate spending to a large extent.
However, as the economy starts reviving, the company expects 35 per cent month-on-month growth in the next 8-12 months. Additionally, considering the recent RBI's Mastercard ban, Karbon has been quick to integrate with the Visa network to provide an uninterrupted experience to their customers in a 40 million-strong untapped SMB segment in India.
