Hyderabad-based id verification startup Equal has raised $10 million (roughly Rs 84 crore) in its first spherical of institutional funding.
The spherical was led by Prosus Ventures, Tomales Bay Capital, and Equal’s founder, Keshav Reddy. Following this funding, Equal’s valuation has climbed to $80 million.
Outstanding buyers participation
The funding spherical noticed participation not solely from institutional buyers but in addition from influential figures within the enterprise world.
Notable contributors included Blume Ventures, DST World, Quona VC, and Gruhas VC, which is related to Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath.
Different vital buyers have been Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal, Karan Adani from the Adani Group, Cred’s Kunal Shah, and Parth Jindal of JSW Cements.
What does Equal do?
Equal was based in 2022 by Keshav Reddy, who comes from the GVK household identified for the GVK Group, and Rajeev Ranjan, a former director of engineering at Swiggy.
The startup focuses on simplifying know-your-customer (KYC) procedures for companies, fraud prevention, and compliance with laws. Its platform integrates with about 50 id databases, supporting numerous corporations in sustaining environment friendly KYC processes.
Goal of fundraising
Equal plans to make use of the raised capital in the direction of scaling up operations, forming strategic partnerships, and growing a complete framework geared toward boosting India’s data-sharing ecosystem.
“We’re constructing three main know-how stacks catering to totally different wants of corporations – one is banking and monetary providers, second is an employment stack and third is the buyer tech stack,” mentioned Reddy.
In August, Equal made an funding for a strategic stake in OneMoney, an account aggregator platform. This deal is presently awaiting approval from the Reserve Financial institution of India.
As the corporate positions itself for future progress, it intends to enter deeper into the regulated area, pursuing extra licenses from monetary authorities. “These plans are nonetheless at an early stage proper now, however finally we are going to get extra regulated,” Reddy famous.
Equal presently serves round 350 giant company purchasers, together with TVS Credit score, Larsen and Toubro, and Upstox. With a workforce of about 65 workers, the corporate is headquartered in Hyderabad and has gross sales operations in Bengaluru and Mumbai.