Ever wondered why your personal banking is seamless, but corporate transactions feel stuck in the past? India’s business fintech is finally catching up! Learn how TransBnk just landed $25M to drag corporate banking into the digital age, promising a revolution for businesses nationwide. Is this the end of spreadsheet overload?

India’s corporate banking sector, long overshadowed by the rapid advancements in consumer fintech, is on the cusp of a significant digital transformation. While everyday transactions have been revolutionized for millions, businesses still grapple with archaic financial infrastructure. This stark contrast highlights a crucial gap that TransBnk, a three-year-old startup, is actively addressing, recently securing a substantial $25 million in a funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners to spearhead this much-needed modernization in the Indian corporate banking landscape.

Over the past decade, the nation has witnessed an explosive boom in consumer fintech, propelled by initiatives like the government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the proliferation of payment aggregators. These innovations have seamlessly integrated digital payments into daily life, setting a high bar for efficiency and convenience. However, these benefits have largely bypassed the corporate world, where transaction banking, including payments, collections, and account statements, continues to rely heavily on manual, paper-intensive, and spreadsheet-driven processes.

The challenges faced by businesses are pervasive and impact operational efficiency significantly. Corporate clients often navigate a labyrinth of multiple internet banking portals and dedicate considerable resources to manual reconciliation, a cumbersome task necessitated by the lack of integrated systems. This reliance on clunky infrastructure underscores a critical need for streamlined, unified corporate banking solutions that can keep pace with India’s rapidly growing economy and its dynamic B2B financial technology sector.

Despite these existing bottlenecks, the B2B fintech industry in India represents an enormous and largely untapped opportunity. Projections from a February 2024 report by Chiratae Ventures and The Digital Fifth forecast this sector to reach a valuation of $1 trillion, underscoring its immense potential. While India boasts a vibrant startup ecosystem with a combined market value of $90 billion, many of these ventures have historically focused on innovations in payments and lending, leaving core banking infrastructure ripe for disruption and digital transformation.

The vision for TransBnk emerged directly from this evident market demand. As Tambe, co-founder and CEO, recounted, “During our banking days, we always got a lot of customers asking us for a single, consolidated platform for transaction banking or corporate banking on a single particular stack.” This direct feedback fueled the ambition to create a unified platform capable of integrating with multiple banks, delivering a consistent experience across web interfaces, mobile apps, SDKs, and APIs, thereby offering a truly holistic financial infrastructure.

Currently, TransBnk’s platform is making significant strides, collaborating with 60 banks, 40 of which are fully integrated to process essential functions like transactions, payments, and reconciliation. The startup serves 220 customers, comprising 80% merchants (including lenders, fintechs, and non-bank financial companies) and 20% banks that white-label TransBnk’s software to offer enhanced corporate banking services to their own clientele. This dual approach signifies the versatility and robustness of their banking technology.

The company has demonstrated remarkable fintech growth over the past year, achieving a 12x increase in revenue and reaching approximately $12 million in annual recurring revenue. TransBnk also reported turning profitable after taxes in February, maintaining healthy gross margins of around 80%. Its platform facilitates an impressive 110 million transactions monthly, covering 11,000 bank accounts and leveraging over 1,500 APIs, showcasing its operational scale and efficiency.

The recent Series B TransBnk funding round, which included $4 million in secondary investments, saw participation from other notable investors such as Fundamentum, Arkam Ventures, 8i Ventures, Accion, and Japan’s GMO Venture Partners. Buoyed by this strategic investment, TransBnk has ambitious plans for global expansion, targeting markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Additionally, it aims to extend its reach into diverse sectors including real estate, pharma, and renewable energy, further solidifying its infrastructure layer.

With this latest infusion of capital, TransBnk has raised a total of approximately $26 million. The company’s valuation has surged by sevenfold since its last round, underscoring investor confidence in its disruptive potential. This significant investment round and rapid market valuation growth position TransBnk as a key player in bridging the decades-long gap in India’s corporate banking sector, promising a more efficient and digitized financial future for businesses across the region and beyond.