Fintech Co to tap investors for $25 mn

MUMBAI: India-focused, California-based fintech player Aeldra Financial, which at the beta level has opened over 10,000 US savings bank accounts for Indians over the past three months, is looking at raising $25 million from existing and new investors as it is entering more geographies, a top company official has said.

Aeldra offers private banking services with primary focus on opening savings bank accounts with a US bank for Indians through its mobile app. Deposits in such accounts are guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of the US.

Aeldra launched its mobile app based services at beta level last December here and has since then opened over 10,000 accounts with the US-based Blue Ridge Bank along with a Mastercard debit card.

Aeldra does not charge anything from customers for transferring money under the liberalised remittances scheme (LRS), which normally costs $20-25 per transaction. Instead it gets the account-holder 2 per cent interest on the deposit, said Sukeert Shanker, one of the four co-founders and chief executive of Aeldra Financial Inc, from his Palo Alto headquarters.

“We’ve already opened 10,000 such accounts at the beta stage by February 28 and from March 1 we are live. We hope to open 15,000-20,000 more accounts by the end of the month in India and around 5 lakh by the end of this year including the US. But vast majority of our business, say 2-3 lahk accounts, will come from India only,” said Shanker, a past COO of Marcus, the retail banking venture of Goldman Sachs.

Aeldra has already raised $3 mn in C-round from a clutch of investors.