- Investors are 500 Global, InfoEdge Ventures, Naval Ravikant-backed AngelList Quant Fund, WorldQuant Ventures, Varanium GenNext Fund, 9Unicorns, Venture Catalyst, Yatra Angel Network, Emphasis Ventures (EMVC), and Naveen Kukreja
- The capital infusion will be used to scale the company’s go-to-market operations, expand its in-house engineering team and further enhance its product offering
Bengaluru, 1st August 2022: Fintech enabler, Tartan today announced it has closed $4.5 million in Pre-Series A investment from 500 Global, InfoEdge Ventures, Naval Ravikant-backed AngelList Quant Fund, WorldQuant Ventures, Varanium GenNext Fund, 9Unicorns, Venture Catalyst, Yatra Angel Network, Emphasis Ventures (EMVC) and Naveen Kukreja. The funding round brings the total raised to ~$6 million since its founding in June 2021. The additional capital infusion will be used to scale the company’s go-to-market operations, expand its in-house engineering team and further enhance its product offering.
Tartan has experienced an impressive first year of growth, launching its first product in June 2021 – a white labeled data API suite through which financial institutions can access their consumers’ payroll data with their consent to verify their income and employment status better. Tartan has scaled its data connectivity coverage to more than 20 million white collared employees and gig workers in India. Since its inception, API requests have grown about 20 times to 150,000 per month.
In addition to the API suite, Tartan has swiftly launched an employee benefits marketplace called Batik. Batik is currently being used by HRMS software providers and employers alike to seamlessly offer simplified benefits to their employees at a discounted cost. Benefits on the platform range from financial, health, and mental wellness options through a network of partners.
Tartan today works with more than 80+ customers and partners, which include banks, fintech lending platforms, credit bureaus, insurance providers, and recruitment agencies, and is exploring multiple other use cases within BNPL and matrimony, etc.
With a first-of-its-kind Data to a Distribution platform, Tartan helps businesses verify their user’s income and employment data, enables auto-population of forms for seamless user journeys, and has set up the rails for standardization of payroll and payslip data. It covers not just CTC break-down and basic KYC details of employees but also deductions, PF contributions, attendance, and performance, most accurately showcasing a clear picture of their identity and ability to pay, which currently does not exist in the Indian market. On the distribution front, through its easy-to-use marketplace Batik, the company is helping fintech lenders and providers to build new category-defining products like Earned wage access (EWA), salary-linked loans, credit card limit management, and emergency funds and distribute them to the new generation of the work-force directly through their employer, in the click of a button.
“With this latest round so closely following our seed financing, we’re more focused than ever on our social purpose-driven mission, which is to open up access to financial services and products for millions of people who are part of the workforce in India and globally, so they are financially healthy and can lead a happier life,” said Pramey Jain, CEO, and Co-founder of Tartan. “Over the last year, rapid adoption of our product has exceeded our expectations as more and more ambitious businesses are choosing the right tools that allow them to build and launch their products for the key pillars of the economy, that is the workforce.”
“Tartan’s API unlocks the power of income and employment data, driving the next wave of innovation in the fintech ecosystem,” said Christine Tsai, CEO and Founding Partner at 500 Global. “Tartan aims to impact everyone who receives a salary or work fee. Such an immense opportunity, coupled with the company’s mission to build a larger data and distribution platform, uniquely positions Tartan to reshape the financial lives of today’s workforce in a positive way.”
The company also plans to double its headcount to 110 people, with a particular emphasis on engineering roles, to continue to support the build of innovative financial products like earned wage access and expand into new areas such as tax filing, etc.
About Tartan:
Tartan provides a data-to-distribution platform that seamlessly enables the movement of payroll data and products for today’s workforce. With their consent, financial institutions use Tartan’s API to access their customer’s data from their traditional or non-traditional HRMS system or payslip to fast-track income and employment verification, improve underwriting and build innovative new products. Its data-powered employee benefits marketplace allows employers and HRMS platforms to build and distribute innovative products which are much needed by workers today.
For more information, please visit Tartan and follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.
