Blockchain startup New Street Technologies gets seed money

New Street Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which builds and operates blockchain-enabled platforms for institutional clients in the financial services segment, has raised $2 million (Rs 13.8 crore at current exchange rates) in a seed funding round led by impact investment firm Unitus Ventures.

The Bengaluru-based technology company said in a statement that other investors who participated in the round included Mohit Davar, chairman of trade body International Association of Money Transfer Networks, and other business leaders in the financial services sector.

New Street said it would use the fresh capital to expand its business to other geographies.

“This round of funding will help us expand our footprint in India and the Middle East while also opening up other markets like Southeast Asia,” said Sajeev Viswanathan, founder and chief executive officer of New Street Technologies.

Viswanathan started New Street Technologies in 2017. He previously worked with financial services giant Citigroup for 18 years, where he served as managing director for global receivables and trade finance. He was also the executive director and president at Earthport Plc, a listed payments company headquartered in London.

MIFIX, which is New Street’s flagship platform, claims to bring together, banks, business correspondents and cash outlets to originate and manage credit through integration with existing systems and processes.

The company claims to deliver credit on behalf of its clients to thousands of their customers, five times faster than the fastest available alternative via quick integration with existing systems.  

“Our platform takes only 6-8 weeks to integrate with a client’s platform,” said Viswanathan.

Investor

Unitus Ventures, formerly known as Unitus Seed Fund, marked the first close of its second fund at Rs 100 crore ($15 million) by raising money from investors including Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. In April last year , the fund had set a target corpus of Rs 300 crore ($46 million).

The second fund’s investments include Predible, a cloud-based AI-driven solution for radiology, and Cyclops Medtech, a medical technology company.

Deals in the segment

Earlier this month, blockchain-based payments firm InstaReM Pte. Ltd raised the second and final tranche worth around $21 million (Rs 144.3 crore) in its Series C funding round led by Singapore-based existing investor Vertex Growth Fund.

OweMe, a blockchain-based B2B payments platform owned by London-headquartered Sabstone Ltd, had last December raised $1 million in a seed round of funding from pi Ventures.