KarmaLife Secures INR 44 Crore Funding to Enable Early Wage Access for Blue-Collar and Gig Workers

• ByStartupStory     |    June 1, 2023

KarmaLife, a Bengaluru-based provider of earnings-linked financial solutions, successfully secures INR 44 crore ($5.34 million) in an extended Pre-Series A funding round. The funding was led by Krishna Bhupal’s family office, with participation from existing investors such as Artha Venture Fund, Net Graph Investments, Singularity Ventures, LogX Venture Partners, and various angel investors.

KarmaLife, a financial solutions provider, announces plans to utilize the newly raised capital for extensive scaling, geographical expansion, product diversification, and increased awareness of its offerings. With this funding round, KarmaLife’s equity funding total reaches nearly $8 million. Established in 2020 by Rohit Rathi, Naveen Budda, and Badal Malick, KarmaLife operates under a B2B2C model and has formed partnerships with over 50 organizations, including prominent names like Flipkart, Elasticrun, Uber, Porter, and Delhivery. These partnerships enable employees to access their earnings prior to payday.

KarmaLife has provided its services to an impressive 270,000 gig and blue-collar workers to date. The company offers subscription-based credit products, including earned wage access and a line of credit. KarmaLife has developed an innovative real-time credit scoring system called KarmaScore. Its flagship product, Earned Wage Access (EWA), allows gig and blue-collar workers to access a portion of their unpaid salary before their designated payday. According to KarmaLife, companies that have implemented their services experienced a notable 37% increase in staff retention within just six months of adoption.

Rohit Rathi, cofounder and CEO of KarmaLife, said, “We welcome this funding round, which reaffirms our investors’ alignment with KarmaLife’s mission. Together, we aim to drive financial inclusion and offer alternatives to predatory lending. Our unwavering goal is to transform the financial lives of millions of blue-collar workers.”

Krishna Bhupal, chairman of his family office, added, “We share the business’ growth plans as a portfolio investment, and more importantly, the impact of the business connects a few hundred million blue-collar and gig entrepreneurs into a network-based approach to transparently access credit which is sustainable and affordable.”

Amidst a revitalization in funding activity within India’s startup ecosystem, KarmaLife successfully secures funding. Recent data from Inc42 reveals that Indian startups have raised a remarkable $1 billion in funding across 80 deals in May 2023, demonstrating a month-on-month (MoM) increase of 15% and 31% respectively. Within the fintech sector, KarmaLife faces competition from established players such as EarlySalary, which raised a substantial $110 million funding round in August of the previous year, and Refyne, which secured $82 million in funding last January.

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