India-based global neo-banking platform Vance has raised $5.8m in a seed round led by Hummingbird Ventures.
The round also saw participation from Global Founders Capital, YCombinator, Soma Capital and seasoned angels such as Alan Rutledge and Gokul Rajaram.
Founded in 2022 by Parth Garg, a Stanford dropout, Vance said it is changing the way global citizens engage with financial services.
The company’s vision is to build an all-encompassing banking platform, which will allow users to seamlessly manage separate accounts, exchange currencies, and eventually, invest in equities across markets.
Unlike multi-currency wallets, Vance said its account allows users to transact using local rails in different countries. The goal is to enable users to use a direct debit in the US, while leveraging India’s UPI rails through the same account.
From the adoption of remote work to the desire to invest in equities across regions, the world is more interconnected than ever before. Yet, while the ambition and needs of consumers have crossed borders, Vance said the foundation of the banking industry remains region-specific and archaic.
Vance was a part of YCombinator’s Winter 2022 batch and plans on going live in the UAE and UK by the end of 2022.
By the first quarter of 2023, the company wants to launch in five additional countries. The startup also aims to leverage its seed round to expand its ten-member team to 30 in the next six months. The funds will also be used to create products like remittances, savings accounts, and investments.
Parth Garg, founder CEO, Vance, said, “Banking and payments have come leaps and bounds over the last decade, but when it comes to international transactions, we still run on archaic systems. It is time to rethink global banking from the ground up. With an ever increasing global population, a global bank is the need of the hour more than ever.”
Another Indian neobank, Fi Money, recently collected an additional $17m for its Series C funding round.
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