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Credit cards are central to today's life and living. They ease purchasing products in bulk, let the users invest in a dozen of ways when time is ripe, and help them keep backup funds if needs arise. Among some of the basic things that the users need to bear in mind while using credit cards is that they need to keep a limit while spending via credit cards, and they need to be wary of paying the amount within the stipulated time ahead, without lengthening it to EMIs. Yes, because slashing the total amount due to easy monthly installments costs an extra percentage of money to be paid, which becomes yet another cause of worry.
Cross-checking with all these points and using a credit card judiciously is not everyone's piece of cake. This is the reason why Slice came into being.
With a revolutionary idea to cause a disruption in the credit card landscape, Slice has decided to launch Slice cards or Slice super cards to give the users the freedom of slicing their total amount into 3 easily payable sums of money.
Here, one thing that distinguishes Slice super cards from regular credit cards is that the Slice cards would not require any extras to be paid. Besides, by using these cards one can also shop anytime, anywhere, and everywhere and even transfer instant cash back to their banks with numerous benefits attached to it.
Thus, you won't be having to pay any hidden charges to be paid later. The benefits of using Slice don't end here. To know what's more to it, read the Slice success story below and also get an insight into its Startup Story, Founders and Team, Funding, Revenue, Valuation, Business Model, Revenue Model, Future Plans, and more!
Slice - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | Slice |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Bangalore, Karnataka, India |
| Sector | Banking and Payment |
| Founders | Rajan Bajaj |
| Founded | January 2016 |
| Valuation | $1 bn+ (November 2021) |
| Revenue | $3.98 mn (Rs 29.88 crore in FY20) |
| Total Funding raised | $291.2 mn (November 2021) |
| Website | sliceit.com |
Slice - Latest News
November 29, 2021 - Slice turns unicorn after raising funds from Insight Partners and Tiger Global Management, becomes the 41st Indian unicorn startup to achieve the same in 2021.
Slice - About
Slice - Startup Story
Slice - Mission and Vision
Slice - Name, Tagline and Logo
Slice - Founder and Team
Slice - Target Market
Slice - Business Model
Slice - Revenue Model
Slice - Employees
Slice - Startup Challenges
Slice - Funding and Investors
Slice - Growth
Slice - Competitors
Slice - Future Plans
Slice - FAQs
Slice - About
Slice is a Bengaluru-based payment and credit startup that extends hassle-free payment cards to deal with your daily payments, which can also be converted into Equated Monthly Installments or EMIs for the ease of the user without any added expense.
Slice pay cards, also referred to as Sice Super cards are zero-fee cards that can be utilized to make transactions both online and offline. The Slice super cards have grown to be one of the leading competitors of traditional credit cards. With these, you can make payments instantly to e-wallets like PhonePe, Google Pay, etc. Furthermore, Slice also claims to reward the users with up to 2% cashback on every transaction. These cards are looking forward to redesigning the economic experience of all the common people. Slice is an enthusiastic unicorn fintech startup that crossed the 1 billion valuation mark on November 29, 2021.
Slice cards have completely changed the way one used to pay! Credit cards are no more a burden now! The process is now smoother and more transparent than usual. The credit limit starts from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 10 lakhs. Slice provides its consumers with the lengthiest interest-free installments. Since the company deals with the cardholders in full clarity, it has turned out to be a very positive aspect towards gaining trust and referrals.
Slice founder and CEO Rajan Bajaj aims to hand powerful and relevant financial products to the young India so that they can start building their credit scores right from the beginning.
“We saw the need for a payment card with a credit line. As the card is interlinked with Slice’s interactive app, the user gets regular data on expenses, insights on spending patterns, regular repayment reminders, and suggestions to convert dues to monthly EMIs in case there are difficulties in paying the whole amount. All this leads to good credit habits,” added he.
Slice - Startup Story
We all have heard at least once that credit cards can make one's life easier! But, is it actually so? Well, it is far from the truth! Nowadays, getting one such card is being increasingly difficult and this first step again often leads to more hassles. One needs to have a decent job to drop himself or herself to a specific income bracket in order to qualify for it. Besides, these cards involve higher interest rates too, as already mentioned above. Getting to know all these loopholes in the whole credit industry, Rajan Bajaj, the founder-CEO of the company ideated a product that would be simple and easily accessible, and usable for the masses. Along with the hurdles faced by others, as reported by Bajaj, it was primarily the hassles that he himself faced, being an avid credit card user, which enkindled the spirit of entrepreneurship in Rajan.
Rajan was only 22 years of age when he founded the startup. He knew that credit cards were one such thing that ensues numerous hassles and plagued the whole generation, especially those who hail from middle-class families of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Besides, he also took a keen interest in the banking space. All of these led to the development of Slice.
Slice - Mission and Vision
Slice is on a mission to ease access to credit in India. The company is looking to change this by helping the students get credit options to buy their books, or other relevant products like laptops and mobile phones, which they can again repay in monthly installments.
The goal of the team of Slice is to build a transparent, modern, and simple financial platform for the Indian youth community.
Slice - Name, Tagline and Logo
The naming of Slice comes from the unique feature of slicing a particular amount or bill into 3 without having to pay anything extra, which the Slice app offers.
Slice goes by the tagline, "India’s best credit card challenger", which it is.
The slice logo is coloured in white with a purple background and denotes the slicing a quarter circle.
Alan Joseph
Slice - Founder and Team
The founder of the company Slice is Rajan Bajaj.
Rajan Bajaj
He is the Founder and the CEO of the company. Rajan began his career as a Business Analyst Intern at Walmart. He was also the founder of the company Mesh Internet. Rajan has pursued his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
Slice - Target Market
The target audience of Slice is college and university students and early-age business associates, who were often declared ineligible for the usual credit cards. The aim of Slice is to simplify financial products for the youngsters. Besides, freelancers, and business startups, and other individuals often wish to experience the pleasure of having credit cards. This is the reason why Slice came into existence to change the game. The average age of Slice customers is 22 years.
Slice - Business Model
The business model of Slice revolves around the subvention income from merchants like Amazon and Flipkart for no-cost EMIs. Furthermore, it also takes into consideration the interchange income from cards, interest income from EMIs, and more.
The Slice cards provide the users with the following information -
- Daily data on payments
- Knowledge about the spending pattern
- Regular expenses indications
- Recommendations to convert dues to EMIs (if only facing difficulties in paying the entire amount)
Sarika Anand
Slice - Revenue Model
The company gains a major chunk of its income from the handling fees that it collects, which was responsible for 71.3% of the total income in FY20. These revenues saw a 3.6X growth in the same fiscal, reported at Rs 24.12 crore. Slice also earns via commissions, which made up around 17% of its income in FY20 and was reported to have grown by 7.3X to Rs 5.36 crore in FY20 when compared to the same period of the previous fiscal. The credit startup also has a subsidiary named Quadrillion Finance Private limited, which adds up the remaining part of its revenues.
Slice has recorded its revenue from operations to be Rs 35.35 crore in FY21, which was around Rs 29.88 crore in FY20. Rajan Bajaj, Co-founder and CEO of Slice, mentioned that Slice is growing at a steady rate of 15-20% each month.
Simran Shahid
Slice - Employees
Slice currently has somewhere around 501-1000 employees, as is mentioned in its Linkedin profile.
Slice - Startup Challenges
One of the earliest challenges that startups face is in raising the capital required to make a headstart and hire a competent team but Slice had no such major issues with it. The only obstacle that Slice had to face when it started off was in convincing the lenders who were shying away in extending credit to the youngsters.
Building adequate systems to manage risk was the next hurdle that Slice needed to overcome. The third challenge that Slice is still battling against is to keep serving its customers in the best possible way, thereby enriching the overall customer experience.
Slice - Funding and Investors
Slice has raised around $303.50 mn over 11 funding rounds that it has seen so far. Series B was the last round that helped Slice mop up around $220 million and reach a unicorn valuation on November 29, 2021. The company became the 31st Indian startup to achieve such a status in 2021.
| Date | Transaction Name | Money Raised | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 29, 2021 | Series B | $220 million | Insight Partners and Tiger Global |
| July 29, 2021 | Debt Financing | $10.04 million | - |
| June 28, 2021 | Venture Round | $20 million | - |
| May 24, 2021 | Debt Financing | $22.63 million | - |
| November 11, 2020 | Debt Financing | $5.19 million | - |
| June 25, 2020 | Series B | $6.12 million | Gunosy Capital |
| October 20, 2019 | Debt Financing | $1.4 million | - |
| September 19, 2019 | Debt Financing | $2.72 million | Gunosy Capital and Pegasus Wings Group |
| September 3, 2018 | Series A | $14.9 million | FINUP |
| February 15, 2016 | Seed Round | $500,000 | Blume Ventures |
Slice is funded by 8 lead investors. The most recent investor is Gunosy Capital.
Slice - Growth
Slice is working on adding amazing features to change the stereotypical system of people being engaged with their credit cards. Reports also say that Slice is looking forward to adding rewards to the app because its goal is to turn the normal plastic card into a greater financial tool.
Slice has already crossed the one million mark of transactions through its app within 5 months after the company launched its first physical card in May 2019. 60% of the transactions were done offline and the rest 40% were done online back then. Slice now boasts of having a user base of 5 million and is currently operating in over 16 cities.
Slice - Competitors
The top competitors of Slice are - LazyPay, ZestMoney, and KreditBee.
LazyPay
LazyPay is among the top competitors of Slice. The company is headquartered at Gurgaon, Haryana, India, and was founded in 2017. LazyPay works in the Fintech sector.
ZestMoney
ZestMoney is perceived as one of the top competitors of Slice. The company is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, and was founded in 2015. ZestMoney also works in the Fintech field.
KreditBee
KreditBee is another competitor of Slice. The company is headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, and was founded in 2018. KreditBee also operates in the Fintech industry just like the above-mentioned companies.
Slice - Future Plans
Slice looks forward to having around 150 million users who would opt for credit cards or BNPL products over the next 5-7 years. Furthermore, the unicorn credit startup also aims to extend its presence to over 24 cities by the end of 2022, most of which would be in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
Slice - FAQs
Where can I use my Slice card?
Slice super cards can be used in a wide variety of ways. For example, you can always use it for transactions with all online and offline merchants where you can pay with Credit/Debit cards, excluding those merchants who prefer payments via prepaid wallets. However, you cannot use Slice pay cards to withdraw cash at ATMs. Besides, it is important to note that Slice holds the discretion over the list of merchants with whom the cards of the company will work and this may vary from time to time.
Note - Some merchants might allow the Slice cards only in the Debit card section while others stick to the Credit card section where the users will need to use their Slice pay cards.
What happens when my profile is waitlisted?
Getting waitlisted while applying for the Slice cards would mean that the company is unable to offer you its services at that moment because of some mismatch in their criteria for your account. However, it will not mean that you won't be using the services of the platform ever again because the criteria are changing every day and the company keeps adding new parameters to include the users.
What is a Slice Pay card?
Slice brings its own payment cards known as Slice pay cards or Slice super cards. These cards don't have any hidden charges and are zero-fee cards that can be used to pay the e-commerce websites and other merchants in place of Debit or Credit cards. Furthermore, with these cards, you would also be able to slice your total bill into 2, 3, or more EMIs that will continue for the period of 12 months without any added charges.
Author: Purbalee Dutta
Source : https://startuptalky.com/slice-better-success-story/
Date : 2021-11-30T08:56:00.000Z