CardUp, a Singapore based online card payment startup has raised 1.7 million in seed funding. The funding round is led by Sequoia India and seed plus. According to the company, the funds raised will be used to expand its business base, which currently only includes small-to medium-sized enterprises (SME). CardUp is a card payment platform for cash management.
“We are delighted to have secured our first round of institutional investment from investors with deep expertise in the payments space and a strong regional network to help us grow the business further,” said CardUp CEO and Founder Nicki Ramsay. Before launching Cardup in 2015, Ramsay had worked for American Express. According to Ramsay, she founded CardUp to solve challenges and to fulfill demands of both credit card users and providers. The company is largely known for its services to make large, recurring payments by credit card.
The startup builds a platform for cash management that enables users to make big payments through credit cards. The company wants to shift payments by bank transfer to credit cards. It enables users to pay via credit card even when recipient do not accept it. CardUp also offers interest free credit for upto 55 days.
While talking about her work experience in payment industry idea, Ramsay said, “In my years spent in the industry, we repeatedly set the same goal, which was to increase credit card usage, but a lot of initiatives actually just ended up shifting share from one card issuer to another”. She further talked about idea of CardUp, she said, our startup extends the way you can use credit cards, so it really grows the pie. On top of this was my own personal frustration that I was getting limited value from my credit card as I couldn’t use it for any of my big expenses.”
CardUp planned to use funds for expanding service to SME’s. In press statement issued, the company dubbed SME as “underserved market”. The existing financial options are not fulfilling the need of SME’s. While talking about SME’s and the need to provide them financial service, Tiang Lim Foo, a SeedPlus operating partner said that, “SMEs are the main economic driving force in Asia, but are currently underserved. CardUp is bringing an innovative payments and cash management technological solution to help SME owners better manage their cash flow and payments processes. We are truly excited to be working with Nicki and her team to embark on the mission to improve the economic productivity of SMEs.”
CardUp claimed 41 % monthly user growth and over $42 million payments, last year. The Company has made partnership with major banks and credit card providers. It has also established partnership with Mastercard, UOB, Bank of China and Citibank etc.