Belong Bags $5 Mn To Provide Fintech Solutions For NRIs Via GIFT City

NRI-focussed fintech startup Belong has raised $5 Mn (about INR 42.9 Cr) in its seed funding round led by Elevation Capital.

The funding round saw participation from Relentless Ventures and a host of angel investors, including Urban Company cofounders Abhiraj Singh Bahl and Varun Khaitan, Zomato CFO Akshant Goyal and Mamaearth cofounder and CEO Varun Alagh, PayU SVP Vineet Sethi, and McKinsey partner Aditya Sharma. 

Founded in 2024 by Ankur Choudhary, Ayush Singh, Sai Sankar M, and Savitri Bobde, Belong operates through GIFT City and aims to provide retail investment products to NRIs. Notably, Choudhary and Bobde, along with Swapnil Bhaskar, earlier cofounded online investment advisory platform Goalwise.

Belong holds a payment services provider (PSP) licence and a broker dealer licence through GIFT city to provide its services. The startup currently offers a USD fixed deposit product, in partnership with Indian banks operating in GIFT City, starting with NRIs in the UAE market. It claims it offers doorstep KYC and easy repatriation. 

Besides, it has developed NRI-specific digital tools like NRI FD rates explorer, GIFT Nifty tracker, NRI compliance compass, residential status calculator, and more, to help NRIs make informed financial decisions.

In a statement, the startup said it is also launching a India tax filing service for NRIs to offer “transparent and cost-effective” NRI taxation services.

Going ahead, the startup has plans to expand beyond the UAE to other key NRI markets like the GCC, the UK, and the US. It is also looking to offer mutual funds, Indian and US equity investments, insurance with global coverage, and NRI-focussed financial cards by leveraging GIFT City’s regulatory framework. 

The development comes at a time when a number of fintech startups are looking to cater to the rising number of Indians residing overseas. Cross-border payments have emerged as a key subsegment in the sector.

The RBI has granted approvals to a number of fintech players to operate as cross-border payment aggregators (PA-CB), after it issued rules to directly regulate entities facilitating such transactions in November 2023.

In January, Skydo secured the PA-CB licence from the central bank, followed by BriskPe receiving an in-principle authorisation in March for the same. 

Cross border financial solutions startups such as HiWiPay and Abound also raised capital earlier this year. 

At the heart of this fintech push is the rapidly growing opportunity it provides. The Indian fintech market is expected to become a $2.1 Tn opportunity by 2030.

As a result, fintech is one of the favourite sectors for investors. In the first half of 2025, fintech startups raised $1.6 Bn across 68 deals as against $1.1 Bn raised via 84 deals in the same period last year.