The Indian diaspora in the US has raised $14 million in seed funding via Abound. This financial platform is led by Near Foundation with participation from other business groups, including Circle Ventures and Times Internet. In an interview, the CEO of Abound, Nishkaam Mehta stated
“Indians are among the largest immigrant groups in the U.S. The average household income in the U.S. is close to $58,000, and the average Indian household income is about $150,000. That tells you that Indian expats are wealthy, affluent, and yet they’re vastly underserved in terms of products and services that are geared for them,”
Seed funding is the initial investment given to a startup to invest in its idea to develop a viable product.
According to the news from TechinAsia, the company has processed over $150 million in remittances and $87 million in gross merchandise value (GMV) from rewards. The CEO explained that in money remittances, if the company purely plays the exchange rate game, this means that the company is constantly losing the user. However, in Abound, because there is a reward layer from the Times of India and other local advertisers, the company does not have that problem. Therefore, the company can always compete on the exchange rate, knowing that it does not have the same customer acquisition cost that the other companies might have.
Rewards for Financial Services
Abound has more than 500,000 users, and in the past six months, the platform has achieved 50% month-on-month revenue growth. The company aims to develop financial solutions for remittances and cross-border financial services.
Near Blockchain Technology
To introduce high-yield savings products and cross-border credit solutions, the company is also investing in near-blockchain technology to improve scalability, security, and efficiency.
With the seed funding, Abound will be able to expand its products, improve its infrastructure, and invest in marketing.
Currently, there are only 40 team members in Abound, based in India. The company aims to expand in the US.
