sequoia-backed fintech aspora will let indian diaspora pay bills back home

Aspora Introduces Bill Payment Feature for Indian Diaspora

Fintech platform Aspora, backed by Sequoia, is introducing a new capability allowing members of the Indian diaspora to directly settle bills in India. This service enables non-resident Indians (NRIs) to conveniently pay utilities and recharge mobile prepaid accounts for family members residing in India.

Addressing Previous Challenges

Previously, NRIs faced limitations when managing bills for family in India. Options were restricted to transferring funds to Indian bank accounts or relying on others to handle payments. Utilizing foreign cards often resulted in substantial charges and frequent payment failures.

Leveraging the Bharat Bill Payment System

Aspora has integrated with the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), utilizing Yes Bank’s domestic network to facilitate bill payments. This integration provides access to over 22,000 billers across India.

• This includes electricity providers like BSES and BESCOM.
• Broadband services such as Jio and Airtel are also supported.
• Payments for loans from major banks can now be processed.

Cost-Effective and Convenient Payments

The company confirms that no fees will be levied for these bill payment services. Users will also benefit from competitive exchange rates when paying bills directly in their foreign currency.

Founder's Perspective

“Paying bills in India has historically been a needlessly complicated process for overseas Indians – often involving transfers, delays, and multiple fees,” stated Aspora founder and CEO Parth Garg in a recent interview with TechCrunch. “Aspora has now resolved this widespread issue with a simple tap on the screen.”

Impact on Remittances and User Engagement

While acknowledging a potential reduction in remittances, Garg anticipates this will be limited to 4% to 5% of total transfer volume. He believes the bill payment feature will foster greater user loyalty and platform engagement.

“Neo banks are focused on increasing transaction frequency within their apps. Remittances typically prompted app usage once or twice monthly. This new bill payment functionality increases platform velocity and encourages more frequent user visits,” Garg explained.

Testing and Expansion

Aspora has been piloting this feature with a select group of several thousand users, yielding encouraging results. Mobile recharges emerged as a significant use case during the testing phase.

Recognizing limitations within BBPS – specifically regarding mobile recharge and foreign credit card payments – Aspora has partnered with Ding, an international mobile recharge provider, to support these transactions.

Geographic Availability

Currently, the bill payment feature is available to customers in the U.K. Aspora intends to extend access to users in the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the near future.

Funding and Growth

In June, Aspora secured $50 million in Series B funding, achieving a $500 million valuation, with Sequoia leading the investment round. Additional investors included Greylock, Hummingbird, Quantum Light Ventures, and Y Combinator. To date, the company has raised over $99 million in funding.

Aspora expanded its services to NRIs in the U.S. market in July, capitalizing on the U.S. being the largest source of remittances to India, accounting for nearly 28% of the total, according to the Reserve Bank of India.

Current User Base and Savings

Aspora currently serves 800,000 customers, who have collectively processed $4 billion in transactions and saved $25 million in transfer fees, as reported by the company.

Future Plans

Looking ahead, Aspora plans to introduce NRE (non-resident external) accounts for managing foreign income and NRO (non-resident ordinary) accounts for managing India-sourced income next year.