Dot, an India-based offline-to-online (O2O) commerce and FinTech startup, announced on Thursday it has raised $8 million (R119 million) initial seed funding from Prosus-owned PayU.
PayU, an online payments service provider in India and 17 other high-growth markets across the world, also announced recently the creation of a new digital lending leader in India. For more read: Prosus’ PayU To Invest R2.8bn In A New Credit Business In India
These transactions reinforce Prosus’s long-term commitment to India, having invested close to $5 billion in its Indian operations and partner companies over the past five years.
In addition to the investments in the payments and FinTech sector, Prosus has also invested in technology-led companies focused on food delivery, education, ecommerce, and travel amongst other things.
PayU and Fosun RZ Capital led the seed funding round, which also saw participation from Info Edge Ventures and other well-known angel investors in the country.
Dot is founded by entrepreneur and PayU India’s ex co-founder Shailaz Nag. It is a technology start-up, providing novel digital transformation and commerce solutions to brick & mortar outlets, which serve 1.3 billion Indian customers with market size of U$ 1 trillion
Dot aims to revolutionize the offline-to-online market space by combining its fintech capabilities with extensive customer engagement offerings and smart tech innovations. Dot, with its unique product offerings, is expected to have the first-mover advantage & will be well-positioned to capture the strong growth from the market.
“There is a huge potential in the offline-to-online commerce and fintech sector, offering immense opportunities for the right product. India has the second-largest number of internet users in the world and a rapidly increasing smartphone user base,” said Nag.
“This, coupled with the recent digitisation push both from the government and the private sector is generating tremendous demand for digital transformation solutions by brick and mortar stores. I personally see significant potential in this space, which has led to the conception of Dot.”
