[Exclusive] Y-Combinator-backed Infinity bags $1.9M in pre-seed funding

Infinity, a neo-banking startup for MSMEs, on Thursday said it raised $1.9 million in a pre-seed funding round with contributions from institutional investors, including Y-Combinator, Liquid 2 Ventures, Script Capital, and prominent angel investors.

It plans to use the fresh capital to expand its product and team, partnerships with service providers, and acquire new licenses from regulators, the company told YourStory in an interaction.

The Bengaluru-based fintech startup, founded by siblings Sourav and Sidharth Choraria, aims to transform cross-border transactions for Indian small and medium-sized businesses.

The company’s banking and payments platform offers international money transfers that are "70% cheaper than traditional methods," while also letting businesses earn income on idle cash by investing in government securities, the founders told YourStory.

“The idea of Infinity came from our father's business. My father owns a small B2B store in West Bengal, Calcutta. He imports items from China, uses them for manufacturing, and then exports the finished product to markets like the US, Middle East, and Bangladesh,” Sidharth said.

Sidharth noted that traditional international payments—often routed through the SWIFT network—are plagued by inefficiencies.

Sourav explained, "Imagine SWIFT as a series of connecting flights for your money. When you receive a payment from a US client, it doesn’t come directly to your bank. Instead, the money travels from your client’s bank in Maryland to a bank in Germany, then to one in London, and finally arrives at your bank in India. Each stop adds a fee, and if one of the banks has a holiday or delay, your payment could be held up by a couple of days."

For every dollar moved from the US to India, businesses can lose as much as 3-5% in fees and delays caused by the multi-hop SWIFT network.

To counter these challenges, Infinity has partnered with major fintech players to establish custom rails that bypass the traditional network. "Instead of going the SWIFT route, we allow our customers to receive money from direct rails—from our US payment partner to our Indian banking partner," Sidharth said.

Sourav added, "This means faster, same-day settlements, transparent real-time FX rates, and fees that are up to 70% lower than what traditional banks charge."

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Infinity’s platform is built for a wide range of businesses—from SaaS startups managing payouts to companies sending vendor payments back home. With over 250 exporters already on board, the startup is also exploring additional features, including investment solutions for idle cash.

"We enable our customers to invest idle money into money market funds. Instead of leaving cash unproductive, they earn a return that’s often better than what they’d get from fixed deposits," Sidharth said.

Beyond payments, Infinity is laying the groundwork for a broader suite of services designed to serve all aspects of global trade.

Sourav has previously scaled Paytm Money to 20 million monthly active users and launched India’s first FD-backed secured credit card.

Sidharth earlier worked as an engineer and product manager at Amazon, where he launched the Amazon Appstore's In-App Purchase module and scaled systems to handle 100 million daily requests during his time at Paytm and MakeMyTrip.

"Our long-term goal is for any company in India that wants to go global—be it supply chain, financing, or even logistics—to have one digital platform. We’re taking it one step at a time," Sidharth said.