All has been quiet on the fintech front for about two years now. No big breakout startups. No splashy funding announcements. But this year, fintechs that want to go after high-earning, non-resident Indians (NRIs) found momentum.

Over the last few years, a clutch of fintechs—the likes of Zolve, Aspora, and Times Internet’s Abound—have set their sights on the 15 million-plus NRIs. Among them, Aspora (formerly known as Vance) believes it has found just the thing to hook NRIs: extremely low-cost remittances.

The startup claims to have grown to over 800,000 users, transacting $2 billion in remittances in three years.

“It’s remarkable,” said a veteran cross-border remittance executive, explaining that such growth is “hard to come by” in such a highly commoditised space. For instance, the US-based Remitly, which has a market capitalisation of over $3 billion, took nine years to reach a million users.

This growth also brought investor attention. In 2025, Aspora raised $50 million—half its total funding—in a series-B round, led by global investors such as Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners, valuing the company at $500 million. Notably, Indian investors are absent from this London-headquartered company that also operates out of Bengaluru.

Cross-border remittance payment is a highly regulated, cut-throat, low-margin business. Finding a cost-effective way to send money is not only a business imperative, but also a social one. One of the G20 and the United Nations’ social-development goals is to reduce the average global cost of sending remittances to 3% by 2030. It’s currently around 6.5%.

While its global rivals, such as Wise and Remitly, charge NRIs 0.5–1% of a transaction as a fee to send money to India, Aspora asks for a flat fee of $3 on any transaction size, making it the cheapest option.

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