Unicorn India Ventures leads $2 Mn round in PeLocal

Fintech startup PeLocal has raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by Unicorn India Ventures.

The Chennai-based company had previously raised $1.06 million in the same round from Future Monk Investments and others.

The proceeds will be used to expand and enhance the platform and also help accelerate go-to-market strategies for rolling out large-scale projects, PeLocal said in a press release.

Launched in 2021 by Vivekanand Tripathi, PeLocal is a payment solutions provider within WhatsApp, advancing digital transactions for clients like Delhi Metro, Indraprastha Gas, Mahanagar Gas, and insurance providers. The platform specializes in transit ticketing, utility payments, and financial services, delivering secure solutions across government and private sectors. It aims to empower secure and end-to-end solutions leveraging cutting-edge communication channels.

PeLocal aspires to leverage technologies like WhatsApp for seamless, secure, and customer-centric transactions. It also bridges the gap between merchants and consumers, envisioning the idea of being ‘Vocal for Local.’ The company plans to go aggressively on payments in WhatsApp and further strengthen its leadership position in the payments solutions market.

In the last 12 months, PeLocal claims to have grown from 500K monthly payment transactions to 3 million monthly payment transactions. The company aims to touch 10 million monthly payment transactions on WhatsApp in the next 12 months. It is planning to launch a Marketing Catalog on WhatsApp with payments and an SMB payments platform on WhatsApp.

It competes with other players in the space like Yellow.ai, Gupshup, and others.