Global payment issuance infrastructure platform CARD91, that powers B2B payments and lending on a card, has emerged out of stealth mode and announced a Pre-Series A funding round for $13 million led by Infinity Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Sabre Partners, EMVC, and Commerce Ventures along with marquee angel investors.

In addition to expanding its reach across India and internationally, the newly raised funds will allow the brand to bolster its service offering and acquire new talent.

The company was established in August 2020 by serial entrepreneurs Vineet Saxena, Ajay Pandey, and Kush Srivastava –who have previously founded successful technology ventures including Myntra (acquired by Flipkart), Mastiff and Quiklo.

While in stealth mode, the founding team earlier partnered with top seed fintech investors led by US-India fund Emphasis Ventures (EMVC) and prominent CEOs across the Indian technology sector.

The Bengaluru-based company is building a plug-and-play payment issuance infrastructure that helps businesses and banks launch co-branded cards and simplify business payments. 

“Digitisation across industries has accelerated over the past two years, and payments is no exception. We believe the next 100 million users in India will be accessing credit via cards issued by brands and businesses. Launching card programs is a difficult process since it involves integrating with multiple players. Our goal is to simplify this process for businesses by providing a plug-and-play solution,” said the founders at CARD91. 

“Globally a lot of businesses want to provide embedded finance as a service, which has increased the demand for such payment infrastructure players and seen a massive interest from investor communities. We are excited to capture a fair share of this massive market opportunity that the payment industry represents globally. Having marquee fintech investors back us, strengthens our belief in our product,” they added.

“CARD91 has created a payments infrastructure that simplifies the card issuance process for start-ups, businesses and banks alike,” said Jeremy Jonker, co-founder and managing partner at Infinity Ventures. “We’re excited about investing in the vision of the founding team and believe that their international expansion will enable their customers to succeed in a global economy.”

“CARD91 has a unique opportunity to power new and needed consumer and business payment products and cards in the region where more mature alternative funding sources, digital wallets and new payment rails are not yet as prevalent as in other parts of the world,” added Dave Matter, Advisor for Point72 Ventures, and its portfolio companies. “This positions them to become a trailblazer for truly innovative payments products globally.”

“We are very excited to back CARD91 as we are seeing that the entire complex value chain of payments is up for disruption. The transformative potentialities of modern card issuing are immense as businesses and customers are demanding new experiences. We have strong belief in the exemplary founding team of CARD91 to realise that vision for the company,” said Rajiv Maliwal, managing partner of Sabre Partners.

CARD91 has previously raised seed funding from EMVC, Rainmatter Capital, Blume Founders Fund, Inflection Point Ventures, and marquee angel investors across the Indian tech ecosystem.