Over the past year, Scapia, headquartered in Bengaluru, had maintained a secretive stance but officially unveiled itself on June 15. The company proudly offers a co-branded credit card and an app that enables customers to effortlessly convert their daily expenditures into rewarding experiences. These rewards materialize in the form of Scapia coins, which can be utilized to seamlessly book hotels and flights online.
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Scapia, the pioneering travel credit card startup led by Anil Goteti, former senior vice president of Flipkart, has triumphed in its seed funding round by raising a staggering $9 million. The funding was spearheaded by Matrix Partners India, even amid a prevailing slowdown in funding activity within the market. Tanglin Venture Partners based in Singapore, Binny Bansal’s 3STATE Ventures, and other notable angel investors, including Keki Mistry, CEO of HDFC Ltd, enthusiastically participated in the funding round.
In an official statement released on Tuesday, Scapia expressed its intention to employ the funds to propel its operations to greater heights and bolster its technological capabilities. Over the past year, Scapia, headquartered in Bengaluru, had maintained a secretive stance but officially unveiled itself on June 15. The company proudly offers a co-branded credit card and an app that enables customers to effortlessly convert their daily expenditures into rewarding experiences. These rewards materialize in the form of Scapia coins, which can be utilized to seamlessly book hotels and flights online.
Anil Goteti, the driving force behind Scapia, emphasized the company’s focus on targeting millennials, who possess an avid interest in travel and actively seek a primary card that effectively rewards them with travel-related perks and benefits. Furthermore, millennials are drawn to a delightful app that exudes transparency and offers a trustworthy service. Goteti astutely recognized the immense potential for Scapia in a market where credit card ownership currently hovers below 5 percent, with India projected to reach a staggering 200 million credit cards in circulation by 2030.
It is worth noting that in 2021, Goteti founded Protonn, an innovative platform designed to empower independent professionals such as lawyers and graphic designers to establish their businesses online or create compelling content. Interestingly, Protonn also secured approximately $9 million in investments from Matrix India, 021 Capital, Tanglin Venture Partners, and prominent angel investors, including Binny Bansal, Kalyan Krishnamurthy (CEO of Flipkart), Sujeet Kumar (co-founder of Udaan), and Kunal Shah (founder of Cred). However, due to its inability to find the perfect product-market fit and expand within the market, Goteti made the decision to close down Protonn in 2022, promptly returning the capital to its investors.
Scapia’s revenue model operates on two fronts: the company will earn a commission percentage from hotels and airlines when customers book through Scapia’s user-friendly app. Additionally, Scapia will receive a commission from the bank it has partnered with for attracting and acquiring new customers. Federal Bank will take charge of credit management and underwriting responsibilities. In the fiercely competitive landscape, Scapia faces off against prominent fintech firms such as Niyo, OneCard, and Uni, further fueling the dynamism of the industry.
