Aspora

Aspora was founded in January 2022 by Parth Garg, a Stanford physics student who grew up between India and Abu Dhabi, together with a co-founder (reported to be John Hemlin, a Stanford CS graduate and former Meta software engineer). The company launched as 'Vance' through Y Combinator's Winter 2022 batch, initially building a revenue-based-financing/capital-debt platform for Indian SaaS companies (likened to a 'Pipe.com for India'). Vance raised a $5.8M seed round in October 2022 led by Hummingbird Ventures, with Global Founders Capital, Y Combinator, Soma Capital and angels Alan Rutledge and Gokul Rajaram participating. According to later reporting (The Generalist, Sequoia), Garg's co-founder abruptly left the company in the summer of 2022; Garg chose to rebuild alone, effectively becoming a solo founder, and pivoted the business toward cross-border remittances and neobanking for NRIs, launching UK remittance services in 2023. The company later rebranded from Vance to Aspora, with the new brand fully in place around the time of its 2025 funding rounds. Growth accelerated sharply in 2024–2025: Aspora quietly closed a $5M seed extension in September 2024, a previously-unreported $35M Series A in December 2024 (led by Sequoia Capital, with Greylock, Y Combinator, Hummingbird Ventures and Global Founders Capital participating, at a reported $150M valuation), and a $53M Series B in June 2025 co-led by Sequoia Capital and Greylock, with Quantum Light Ventures (founded by Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky) and existing investors participating, alongside angels Balaji Srinivasan, Sundeep Jain, Prasanna Sankar and Chad West — bringing total funding to roughly $93-99M at a $500M valuation. This marked Sequoia's first investment in an India-origin startup via its global (US) entity following its 2023 split from Peak XV Partners. By mid-to-late 2025, Aspora reported processing $2B+ (later $4B+ annualized) in transaction volume, serving 250,000 to 800,000+ users (Aspora's own site claims 1M+), and saving customers $15-50M in fees versus incumbents. The company operates from London (HQ) with additional offices in Bengaluru, India and Dubai, UAE, and has expanded remittance corridors from the UK/UAE/EU into the US (July 2025) with Canada, Australia and Singapore targeted by year-end 2025. Product expansion continued with a no-fee bill-payment feature (launched November 2025, via India's BBPS network and Yes Bank, covering 22,000+ billers) and, in December 2025, the hiring of former Paytm Money/Paytm Services CEO Varun Sridhar as CEO of Aspora's new Wealth & Lending business line, signaling a push toward becoming a full-stack diaspora financial 'super app' encompassing banking, investing, credit and insurance.

Business model

Consumer fintech / neobank charging transparent, low/flat fees on remittances and cross-border transactions, monetizing FX spread, and expanding into fee- or interest-based wealth, lending and banking products for non-resident Indians.

Transaction/FX fees on remittances and bill payments; planned revenue from investment products (mutual funds), lending, fixed deposits, credit and insurance/banking services as it becomes a full-stack diaspora neobank.