IAN leads pre-Series A funding in fintech startup Zerone

Fintech startup Zerone Microsystems Pvt Ltd has raised $1.3 million (Rs 9.5 crore) as part of its pre-Series A funding round led by the Indian Angel Network (IAN).

IAN said in a statement that its IAN Fund and The Chennai Angels also participated in this round.

Jaijit Bhattacharya, founder and CEO, Zerone, said the company will use the funds to strengthen its platform and provide better services to customers.

The statement said that Zerone has built a cloud-based, ultra-low-cost solution called Bharat ZupPOS that helps convert a smartphone into a payment terminal. This enables merchants to accept payment from credit cards, debit cards, and UPI apps such as BHIM without any additional hardware, it added.

The company claims to have more than 30,000 merchants in different parts of the country.

Bhattacharya, an ex-KPMG senior partner, said that currently 80 million people require digital payment acceptance terminals in India but only 4 million merchants have the hardware POS (point of sale) machine. "So, there is a sizeable unmet market demand existing," he added.

A bunch of fintech deals across all stages were struck last year.

Just last month, payment solutions provider Pine Labs raised funding from US-based Lone Pine Capital in a new round that took its valuation to more than $2 billion.

Fintech firm Razorpay also joined the unicorn club of startups that have a valuation of at least $1 billion last year.

IAN, which was founded in 2006, has been one of the prominent investors in India's startup ecosystem. It has over 120 portfolio companies across seven countries.

The angel network later launched its own fund. It marked the final close of its maiden IAN Fund in November 2019 at Rs 375 crore, surpassing its targeted corpus.