Zolve, a neobank enabling international access to financial services, has announced the closing of $40 million in Series A funding.
Zolve‘s investment round has been led by Partners of DST Global, who have previously led rounds in Fintech firms like Robinhood, Nubank, Chime, Revolut, and Wealthsimple.
The round also included participation from Tiger Global, Alkeon Capital, along with existing investors such as Accel and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
The proceeds will be channeled towards scaling the firm’s financial services platform, with the funding round “raising the 10-month old company’s valuation to $210 million.”
Zolve offers immigrants bound to the U.S. with “access to FDIC-insured bank accounts, high-limit credit cards, and debit cards on the basis of their home country credit score – without the need for an SSN (social security number) or U.S. credit history – while they are still in their home countries,” the announcement noted.
Zolve is on course to “become a full-stack financial services provider with products focused on instant remittance, insurance, and loans in the pipeline,” the update revealed.
Since launching its business operations in September 2021, over 70,000 clients from Australia, Canada, Germany, India, and the UK have reportedly signed up for Zolve.
As stated in a release, the new round of funding comes “just 7 months after announcing a large seed round of $15 million which saw the participation of Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and a host of other marquee investors.”
The announcement further noted that with these additional funds, Zolve aims to further improve the user experience for international citizens, enabling them to open their U.S. accounts in minutes.
The capital injection should “help speed expansion of the service to more nationalities, increasing the number of people who can start building their financial futures from the moment they arrive in the U.S,” the update noted while adding that Zolve is looking to expand its partner network and recruit talent in the U.S. and India in order “to launch more products and open access to more countries.”
Raghunandan G (‘Raghu’), CEO and Founder of Zolve, stated:
“While we intended to start with a small cohort of 500 users, we were oversubscribed by almost 90x from working professionals and students within the first few weeks. This incredible traction has been far beyond what we had envisioned and clearly demonstrates that there is a tangible need for a service that provides global citizens equitable access to financial products. We look forward to expanding the scale and reach of our products, helping even more immigrants globally to achieve their dreams.”
Anand Daniel of Accel remarked:
“Zolve is among the few startups I’ve seen that achieved product-market fit right out of the gate. Given that the U.S. is a country with immigrants in its DNA, it’s surprising how long it has taken someone to solve the issues that new immigrants experience with the traditional banking system.”
Bejul Somaia, Partner, Lightspeed added:
“Access to tailored and fair financial products has a direct and meaningful impact on people’s lives. We’re incredibly excited to have invested in Zolve, and to support Raghu’s vision of bringing world-class financial services products and experiences to immigrants in the US and other markets.”