The Bengaluru-based fintech startup is building next-generation programmable banking and card infrastructure.
GrowthCap Ventures Leads Strategic Investment
Spense, a Bengaluru-based fintech startup developing programmable banking and card infrastructure, has raised $1.85 million in a pre-seed funding round. The round was led by GrowthCap Ventures, a SEBI-registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) known for backing early-stage tech innovators in India.
In addition to GrowthCap, several high-profile angel investors participated in the round. These include Kunal Shah (Founder of CRED), Sayandeb Banerjee (Co-founder of The Math Company), Suresh Rayasam (Head of Applied AI for GTM), and Ravi Sudhakar (Director, AI Global Business Strategy at Microsoft), among others.
Building the Backbone for Digital Credit Infrastructure
Founded by Pawan Kumar, the former Head of Applied Science at Uber India, and Srinivas Krishnamurthy, former Technical Lead at BNP Paribas, Spense is on a mission to modernize the infrastructure behind credit and payment systems in India.
The startup provides APIs and backend solutions for launching secured credit cards, prepaid programs, and forex cards. Their platform is designed specifically for regulated financial institutions, allowing them to launch compliant, customizable, and programmable credit products in a timely and secure manner.
Spense’s value proposition to banks and fintechs is the reduction of go-to-market speed-to-value, while maintaining robust compliance and auditability. It also integrates smoothly with existing legacy systems, which is a major bottleneck for many traditional financial institutions.
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Utilization of Funds: Scaling Infrastructure and Partnerships
According to the company, the funds will be utilized to:
- Onboard additional banking partners
- Expand fintech collaborations
- Enhance its technology and product stack to support a broader range of programmable financial services beyond just credit cards
Spense also plans to invest in research and development, particularly in areas that improve data-driven credit decisioning, compliance automation, and user-level customization.
This strategic deployment of capital will help Spense create a deeper moat in the rapidly growing banking-as-a-service (BaaS) and embedded finance space.
A Market Ripe for Disruption
India’s credit card market is still in its early stages compared to global standards. According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in late 2024, India had around 94 million credit cards issued, or about 9% of the total number of debit cards of over 1 billion. Given this, there is a considerable opportunity in the consumer credit space.
The introduction of secured credit cards, where users can deposit a security amount to access credit, is one of the fastest-growing segments, especially for first-time credit users and underserved demographics. Spense is building infrastructure to enable banks and non-banking institutions to offer such products at scale.
Additionally, with the growing adoption of Open Banking and API, first financial services, the demand for modular, programmable infrastructure is expected to surge over the next five years.
Investor Confidence in Fintech Infrastructure
GrowthCap’s participation underscores rising investor interest in fintech infrastructure plays, which often remain behind the scenes but power a large chunk of digital financial services.
“India’s next wave of fintech growth will come from enablers who make complex compliance and banking infrastructure seamless and programmable. Spense is building exactly that,” noted a GrowthCap representative during the announcement, according to reports.
Industry insiders believe Spense’s experienced founding team and early traction among regulated financial institutions give it a strong foundation in a highly competitive sector.
Looking Ahead
With this pre-Seed round completed, Spense is about to become a critical enabler as India develops on its digital credit journey. As the fintech ecosystem matures and regulations become more strenuous, Spense’s emphasis on compliance, speed, and scale will deliver meaningful market penetration for these solutions, as we have established.
The startup’s roadmap includes adding more financial products, supporting multi-currency capabilities, and potentially expanding to Southeast Asian markets in the future.
Spense has not yet disclosed specific partner names or customer metrics, but sources close to the company indicate several partnerships are currently in advanced stages.
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