HiWi, a global cross-border remittance fintech headquartered in India has secured $870K crore (₹7.25 crore) in pre-seed funding. The investment came from Unicorn India Ventures and the Unmaj Group Family Office. The capital injection will be used to advance product development and execute a strategic go-to-market rollout.
Next-gen cross-border fintech platform
The contemporary cross-border payment landscape is plagued by issues such as opacity in exchange rates, exorbitant forex margins, and documentation challenges. Founded by Dewang Neralla, a seasoned fintech entrepreneur and the former Founder and CEO of Atom Technologies, alongside Geeta Chauhan and Ujwal Tamminedi, HiWi is designed to cater to international payments and financial transactions, making it easier for individuals and businesses to manage cross-border transactions.
Its global cross-border fintech platform simplifies remittances for students studying abroad. The platform serves as a centralised and integrated solution for both study abroad agents and students, offering a comprehensive suite of financial services.
It includes a user-friendly mobile application for students to transfer funds, open foreign bank accounts, access financing options, manage card expenditures, and accrue loyalty points. It offers these facilities while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
In addition to these, with the incorporation of AI models like ChatGPT, HiWi aims to provide enhanced customer support and interaction through AI-drive chatbots. AI can assist with customer inquiries, transaction monitoring, and more.
HiWi aims to assist over 25,000 students in remitting $100 million by March 2025 and to onboard 5,000 educational consultants onto its platform.
Dewang Neralla, Founder of HiWi, stated, “I would like to thank Unicorn India Ventures and Unmaj Group for having confidence in HiWi’s vision to make cross-border remittances accessible and convenient for all stakeholders. Although our initial focus is on education, we plan to expand our services to cater to SMEs, further streamlining and enhancing the remittance process.”
Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, said, “Foreign education is an ever growing market. At Unicorn, we have studied this segment and made investments both in study abroad and fintech companies. HiWi is combining the power of tech and addressing a much needed gap of facilitating cross border payments that are easier and convenient for both the parents and students. The company is starting with foreign admission but the product stack will be leveraged for other use cases post foreign admission, The future offerings canvas in this segment will give immense growth opportunities to HiWi.”
