Chennai-based fintech startup Pelocal has raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by UNLEASH Capital Partners and Unicorn India Ventures, alongside participation from a group of angel investors. The round follows Pelocal’s earlier $2 million raise in October 2024 from Unicorn India Ventures, highlighting growing investor confidence in the company’s business model and rapid growth trajectory.
Founded in 2021 by Vivekanand Tripathi and Vikas Garg, Pelocal offers an AI-powered payments orchestration platform that embeds payments directly into WhatsApp and other messaging apps. This enables enterprises to seamlessly acquire, engage, and collect from customers within chat conversations, powering diverse use cases such as ticketing, collections, customer acquisition, and servicing.
Beyond conversational payments, Pelocal is also building infrastructure solutions for BFSI enterprises, helping banks, insurers, and financial institutions streamline payments and customer interactions. The startup already works with over 40 enterprises across BFSI, transit, and utilities, with clients including Canara HSBC Life Insurance, Delhi Metro, Oriental Insurance, Mahanagar Gas, and Asianet Broadband.
Pelocal claims to serve more than 5 million unique users monthly and has grown its total payment value sixfold since its last fundraise. Currently, the company operates at an annualized payment run rate of over $500 million, while reporting an annual revenue run rate of about $1.5 million, with ambitions to reach $10 million within 18–24 months.
The newly raised capital will be used to accelerate product development, broaden existing use cases, and strengthen go-to-market strategies, enabling Pelocal to scale rapidly in India and beyond.
Commenting on the fundraise, Vivekanand Tripathi, Founder & CEO of Pelocal, said: “Until now, digital communications have largely been limited to peer-to-peer messages or one-way notifications. Our vision is to bring last-mile payments to the masses via WhatsApp by leveraging AI and advanced technologies. This fundraise enables us to execute that mission, and we’re thrilled to have the support of investors who share our conviction.”
Vikas Garg, Co-founder, added: “With strong market demand and the backing of our investors, we’re committed to delivering world-class products at the intersection of payments, communication, and enterprise technology.”
Investor confidence also remains strong. “Pelocal is redefining how enterprises interact and transact with customers by embedding payments into conversational interfaces like WhatsApp. With AI at the core, the company is solving a large-scale problem for Indian businesses and has the potential to scale globally,” said Natsuki Sugai, Managing Partner, UNLEASH Capital Partners.
Echoing this, Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, noted: “We believed in Pelocal’s vision early on, and the company has delivered exceptional growth since our first investment. The surge in conversational commerce and embedded payment solutions presents a massive opportunity, and Pelocal is well-positioned to lead this transformation.”
