Quona Capital led a $4.6 million seed fundraising round for mewt, a banking app for micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs). BEENEXT, DG Daiwa Ventures, Goodwater Capital, and Allin Capital also participated in the financing. The cash will be used to hire talent in product development and engineering, as well as to launch mewt’s debit card for SMEs.
The 10-month-old startup, founded by BITS Pilani alumni Rishabh Jain and Kushal Prakash, provides alternative business banking solutions to MSMEs. Its app, which was released in January of this year, brings all bank accounts together in one spot, allowing small businesses to make quick transactions and eliminate cash flow anomalies.
The app processed 1 million transactions in March and has supported over 200K small businesses in 600 cities throughout India. The business said in a statement that it hopes to reach 1 million users by the end of the year. BEENEXT and other angel investors provided mewt with over $600,000 in startup money in 2021.
Indian Finance business
In the alternate banking space, the business competes with companies like Revolut, Simple, and GoBank. The Indian alternative finance business was predicted to be worth $547 million in 2018, according to a survey.
The round takes place at a time when the country’s fintech firms are feeling the effects of the ‘funding winter.’ Fintech firms raised $3.2 billion in the prior December quarter of 2021, but only $1.77 billion in the January-March quarter of 2022. Fintech startup funding fell by 75% in May, to $153.6 million, from $624.5 million in April of this year.
Siply’s $19 million fundraising round, Jiraaf’s $7.5 million funding round, AssetPlus’ $3.6 million funding round, and Uni and Slice’s INR 50 crore and $50 million funding rounds are just a few examples of recent funding in the sector.