Kodo Raises $8.75 Mn In Seed Round From Brex, Y-Combinator, Goat Capital And Others It will use the funds raised to strengthen and expand its team across engineering, product, sales, credit and operations, to support its accelerated growth plans
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Corporate card startup Kodo announced on Thursday that it has raised $8.75 million in Seed capital from a slew of investors that include Brex, Goat Capital, Pioneer Fund, and other Silicon Valley investors. Kodo was part of the winter 2021 batch of Y-Combinator. It was launched in 2019 with the mission of putting a Kodo corporate card in the hands of every founder in India.
It will use the funds raised to strengthen and expand its team across engineering, product, sales, credit, and operations, to support its accelerated growth plans.
"Kodo has built an amazing foundation in India and we are looking forward to putting the full weight of our experience behind them," said Henrique Dubugras, co-chief executive officer, Brex. "We were immediately impressed with Deepti and her team's deep understanding of the future of finance and are incredibly excited about the next phase of their business."
Business collections and spends in India are witnessing a massive shift from cash to digital, creating a strong tailwind for Kodo's cards and spend management tools. Card spends on Kodo have grown 45 per cent month on month for the last 12 months, leading to an 83-time jump in transaction volumes.
"We are obsessed about creating the most intuitive and seamless financial products for founders that enable them to free up their time and mind to pursue their own mission with confidence. We believe that founders should be free from the anxiety of where their money is, how much is being spent, and how to optimize their cash flows. Kodo cards with integrated spend management tools is our first step towards that goal. We are seeing accelerating adoption of Kodo cards from businesses ranging from VC-backed startups to SMBs, across sectors. With this capital raise, we are well-positioned to build on that momentum, strengthen our team and expand our customer base," remarked Deepti Sanghi, co-founder, and chief executive officer, Kodo.
Kodo offers a frictionless card experience to busy founders, starting with a 3-minute approval process to automated expense management tools. The company believes repetitive financial tasks should be automated so that founders can focus on building their business and doing what they love. Kodo also offers rewards worth over INR 50 lakh to its customers.
"As early investors of the global fintech revolution, we were struck by the clarity of Kodo's vision," commented Robin Chan, general partner, Goat Capital. "We seek tenacious founders unlocking massive new markets. Deepti and Gaurav are exactly the type of founders we love backing."
Companies using Kodo cards can issue multiple cards (both virtual and physical) to their team members. This provides complete end-to-end control to the founders and finance teams by enabling them to seamlessly track all expenses in one place in real-time. Kodo recently launched Kodo Pay, which allows customers to now use their Kodo credit limits to pay even those vendors who don't accept cards.
