Srikanth
Novo, a preferred business banking partner for SMEs, startups and freelancers, has raised $40.7 Million (Rs. 302 crores) in a Series A round of funding, making it the highest Series A funding for neobanks. The independent tech company that enables small businesses to open accounts in minutes without a minimum balance requirement has raised the capital from Valar Ventures along with Crosslink Capital, Rainfall Ventures, Red Sea Ventures and BoxGroup.
Commenting on the funding, Michael Rangel, Co-Founder & CEO, Novo, noted, “Novo has witnessed deeper investor interest in recent times, especially owing to the pandemic enhancing the role of virtual support ecosystem. India, being one of the fastest growing economies, is a vital market for us. Novo is focused on creating jobs in India in support operations and building advanced technology, enabled by our funding partners. Presently, Novo has a strength of over 50 employees in India and plans to triple it to 150 by this Financial Year (FY 22)”
Adding to this, Ajar Upadhyay, Director of Operations – India, Novo, said, “At Novo, we have support operations in India across Gurgaon, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. The funding will be utilised to expand Operations, Banking, Product and, most importantly, Engineering verticals and enhance hiring across key and support roles in India.”
Till date Novo has raised $6.7M in its Seed Round from Crosslink Capital, Red Sea Ventures, Hack VC, RRE, Rainfall, and the Stanford Law School Venture Fund. Novo brings banking services to the largely underserved communities of freelancers, startup founders, and small business owners. At no hidden charges, Novo allows its clients to open business checking accounts in an enviable span of minutes and assures them of safe and secure transactions. The funding will enhance Novo’s platforms and services in a bid to provide a state-of-the-art compelling banking experience to its clients. Novo gives its users the flexibility to bank on their own terms, and from anywhere in the USA, right from processing free bank transfers, transaction monitoring to reviewing balances.
Founded in 2016 by Tyler McIntyre and Michael Rangel, Novo has a client base of over 100,000 SME customers. With accelerated growth in the last couple of months, Novo aims to become the “financial watchtower for small business” offering data analytics.
