Kiwi Returns to the Funding Market
Indian fintech startup Kiwi is seeking between $30 million and $40 million in fresh funding as it looks to accelerate customer acquisition and expand its credit offerings through India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI), according to The Economic Times.
The proposed transaction is still at the fundraising stage, meaning the amount, investors and other terms could change before a deal is completed.
Kiwi, based in Bengaluru, offers bank-issued RuPay credit cards that can be used for UPI transactions, alongside credit lines designed to bring borrowing directly into the widely used payments ecosystem.
Potentially Kiwi's Biggest Funding Round
If the proposed deal closes at the upper end of the reported range, it would become Kiwi's largest financing round.
The startup raised $24 million in Series B funding in August 2025, led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners and Omidyar Network. That round brought Kiwi's total equity funding at the time to about $43 million.
The Economic Times reported that the 2025 transaction valued Kiwi at around $100 million.
Kiwi Sets Ambitious Growth Target
The fresh fundraising effort comes as Kiwi attempts to significantly expand its customer base.
The company is targeting 600,000 credit cards and credit lines by March 2027, according to ET. As of August, it had more than 311,000 cards and over 11,000 sanctioned credit lines.
Kiwi has also been expanding beyond conventional credit cards. Its Postpaid product offers cardless credit through UPI. The number of credit lines reportedly increased more than fourteenfold in the two months to August, from 802, while about 40% of its credit-line customers did not already have a credit card.
Why Credit-on-UPI Is Attracting Attention
Kiwi is trying to build on the intersection of two major financial products: UPI and consumer credit.
UPI has become deeply embedded in everyday digital payments in India, while RuPay credit-card integration and credit lines on UPI allow eligible consumers to make UPI transactions using borrowed funds rather than relying solely on money in their bank accounts.
Kiwi expanded this strategy in 2026 with a credit-line-on-UPI product in partnership with Yes Bank. The company has said it expects products such as UPI-linked credit cards and credit lines to attract millions of users over the coming years.
Growth Opportunity Comes With Execution Challenges
The proposed fundraise indicates Kiwi is preparing to spend more aggressively on growth, but fundraising itself does not guarantee that its expansion targets will be achieved.
Credit-focused fintech companies have to balance customer acquisition with lending quality, unit economics, bank partnerships and regulatory requirements.
Kiwi has previously said that strengthening unit economics is part of its strategy, while CEO Anup Agrawal said after the 2025 funding round that the company was targeting profitability within two years.
The significance of a new $30–40 million round will therefore depend not only on whether Kiwi secures the capital, but also on how efficiently it can convert that funding into sustainable growth.
What Happens Next?
For now, the financing should be described as a planned or proposed fundraise, rather than a completed investment.
If the transaction goes ahead, attention will turn to the participating investors, Kiwi's new valuation, the final amount raised and how quickly the company can move toward its March 2027 growth target.
