Aeldra, a neobank launched in 2021 to provide Indians access to U.S. banking and investment, has picked up its second round of investment from the early Twitter Silicon Valley investor Greg Kidd. Kidd was among the first investors in Aeldra when it was launched. Close to 50,000 Indians are using Aeldra for their U.S. banking needs with more than US$ 30 million in transactions.
Aeldra enables Indians who do not have a Social Security Number or a visa to open a U.S. bank account digitally on their mobile in ten minutes from India, with only an Indian passport as document proof. All customers have access to a Mastercard global debit card.
Kidd, who is the foremost early-stage Silicon Valley investor in fin-tech, has also been an early investor in fin-techs like Twitter, Square, Robinhood, Ripple and Coinbase and is known to spot trends across countries, regulations and technology. “I have been looking at global trends in finance for two decades and Aeldra uniquely provides cross-border banking to one of the largest markets. This is extremely complex. Sukeert and Aeldra’s leadership team has the credibility, vision and ability to do this,” he said.
“Indians are a global powerhouse. Our customers in India are global in their overall outlook, but they still cannot get a U.S. bank account. We are the only fin-tech platform to offer U.S. bank accounts to Indians in India. We have the support of regulators, top investors and high profile Indian CEOs in the U.S. Greg, being the true visionary he is with his belief in global access to financial service, is an incredible source of strength for Aeldra,” said Sukeert Shanker, CEO, Aeldra, who also led the launch of Marcus by Goldman Sachs.
Unfortunately Aeldra is closing on Sep 2022