Fintech startup Kissht has raised $80 million in a funding round led by Vertex Growth and Brunei investment agency as the Mumbai-based firm looks to bolster its offering.

Existing investors Vertex Ventures SEA and India and Endiya Partners also participated in the round, Kissht said in a statement on June 8. The company said it would enter the credit card support space.

Kissht also launched Ring, an all-digital credit and payments app focused on millennials. Kissht said it aims to make Ring a brand that appeals to young, aspiring millennials with a 2% credit card penetration rate.

Kissht, founded in 2015 by Ranvir Singh and Krishnan Vishwanathan, said it plans to build a loyalty product to meet the changing needs of India’s new credit and low-income population. Kissht said the focus would be on increasing stickiness by offering rewards on the most relevant spending categories like groceries, travel and lifestyle.

Kissht told Ring it was looking to address a void created by a lack of point-of-sale (POS) infrastructure for non-top merchants and an inability to serve customers due to higher acquisition costs and a poor understanding of risk.

With the new funding, the company said it would be able to build a product that addresses these issues by delivering 10 million cards over the next 12 to 18 months.

Using Ring, customers can pay for e-commerce transactions, pay merchants, pay themselves, pay friends, and get credits of up to Rs 30,000 with 0% interest in one billing cycle, Kissht said. This marks Kissht’s entry into the BNPL (buy now, pay later) card space.

Earlier, in January 2022, the startup raised $13.2 million in funding led by Trifecta Capital and Northern Arc. To date, the startup has raised more than $142.5 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.