London-based blockchain B2B payments startup OweMe has raised INR 7 crores ($1 million) in seed funding from Bengaluru-based AI and IoT-focused venture capital fund pi Ventures. The startup helps companies transact efficiently through their supply chain.
Founded by Nishant Singh and Nisha Singh, the startup removes the supply chain costs by removing large corporates and banks from the intermediaries. OweMe will use the freshly raised capital to improve its products and invest in team building. OweMe helps banks and Fortune 10,000 firms to lend to their supply chain. The unique payment model used by the firm costs neutral for large corporate buyers and affordable for small vendors to borrow.
Nishant Singh, CEO and Co-founder, OweMe, says, “Finance has been viewed as a single entities’ issue for ages. Operationally, firms have long since integrated their supply chains but there is a long way to go for financial integration. Today, technology, regulation and market readiness can drive significant transformation in the way companies think about finance in their supply chains. We are very excited about the investment and the opportunities we can unveil with it.”
The startup is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom and issues electronic money to help companies create, pay and track their own currency against traditional fiat currencies. This reduces the overall friction and diminishes the costs involved. OweMe uses a blockchain-based platform to enable moving of currencies in a deep supply chain scenario.
Abishek Surendran, Partner, pi Ventures, added, “Large companies are looking to leverage their balance sheet to lock in their supply and distribution chains. Nishant and Nisha’s extensive understanding of the supply chain finance space and blockchain has helped them build a world-class platform that is revolutionary. The platform can be used wherever provenance of money flow is important.”
The Bengaluru-headquartered early stage venture fund pi Ventures has earlier invested in startups like Zenatix, Sigtuple and Niramai. It has made the second close of it’s $30 million funds at $25 million early this year. pi Ventures boasts support from Accel Partners, In Colour Capital, Mohandas Pai, Binny Bansal, Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Deep Karla, SIDBI and IFC.
