Paytm and Infibeam Backed Startup Fable Fintech Raises Series-A Funding

Fable Fintech, Mumbai based leading B2B provider of global Cross border payment processing platforms, has raised a round of Series-A funding. This round was led by India based marquee investors which include early-stage B2B-SaaS focused venture capital fund Pentathlon Ventures, noted stock market investors Ashish Kacholia & Lashit Sanghvi and former Wall Street banker Sumeet Kanwar along with participation by existing investors PayTM & Infibeam Avenues. Software industry veteran Farid Kazani,  Content producer and Entrepreneur Dr. Shilpa Ramani and other prominent individual corporate executives and entrepreneurs also participated. Current shareholders in Fable include ICICI Bank, Secocha (Parekh Family of Pidilite Industries) & Muthoot Fincorp.

Naushad Contractor, Fable Fintech

Started by Naushad Contractor, a seasoned fintech and payments executive with global experience, along with a few hand-picked domain experts, Fable Fintech powers the cross-border remittance and payments processing solutions offered by banks, money transfer operators, MSBs & other licensed entities to their Retail and SME customers.

Fable Fintech caters to 20 banks, currency exchange companies, and Money Service Businesses (MSBs) across 8 countries. This includes 9 out of 10 large private sector banks in India including such marquee names as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank IDFC First Bank, Canara Bank In addition, Fable’s class leading platforms are also used by clients in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UK, Singapore, Bangladesh & UAE and very soon in Africa, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Fable has a team of 200 resources in India, with key personnel based in the USA & Singapore. With this round of funding and a strong B2B business model, Fable in on its way to a market leadership position in the market for Cross Border payment platforms globally.

These fresh funds are mainly intended towards expansion of the company’s product footprint across Asia, North America, Middle East & African markets. Besides, the company will also continue to invest into new products to enrich its portfolio and expand its execution capabilities.

India is the highest receiver of remittances globally and last year that figure was USD 80 Bn.  As per McKinsey’s 2020 Global Payments report, Covid -19 has led to the reduction of cash and the increase of digital payments both domestic and cross border. COVID-19’s impact on the top and bottom lines of bank P&Ls and the need to continue investing in technology to offer a compelling value proposition require banks to determine the strategic role and their level of ambition in payments. The SME segment will likely be the driver of this growth.

Commenting on the fund raise, Naushad Contractor, CEO, Fable Fintech, said, “We are elated to onboard marquee investors and look forward to their insights in enriching and realizing our vision. In the last three years, we have built an ecosystem for unlocking the latent fintech potential in banks, financial institutions and businesses to move money worldwide in a secure, transparent, reliable and efficient manner with ZERO compromises on global compliance, AML & KYC norms. Our platforms are ready for global deployment now.”

Ashish Kacholia Added, “Fable will continue to expand the proposition to newer markets – thereby working towards making cross border transactions more agile, seamless and accessible to customers of Banks, MSBs and anyone who needs platforms like these across the world.”

“Fable platforms are proudly made in India but have proven over time that can be deployed globally. Now is the right time to transition these platforms that are already processing large volumes to banks across the world with minor adaptations. This will give the banks the advantage they need before it’s too late and non-banks increase the lead they already have in such a way that is becomes unsurmountable,” Gireendra Kasmalkar from Pentathlon Ventures commented.

Fable has processed around 8 mn transactions aggregating to an estimated USD 16 bn. Fable’s platforms offer bank-grade security, compliance and technology compatibility to facilitate faster go-to-market. The company embraces partnerships with other remittance & network companies like Mastercard, Visa, Ripple and Western Union ensuring that they are able to integrate with anyone their client wishes.