Slice: How It's Innovating Fintech with UPI Payments, Consumer Credit, and Prepaid Banking

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Credit cards are central to today's life. They ease purchasing products in bulk, let the users invest in a dozen ways when the time is right, and help them keep backup funds if needs arise. Among some of the basic things that the users need to bear in mind while using credit cards is that they need to keep a limit while spending via credit cards, and they need to be wary of paying the amount within the stipulated time ahead without lengthening it to EMIs. Yes, because slashing the total amount due to easy monthly instalments costs an extra percentage of money to be paid, which becomes yet another cause of worry.

Cross-checking all these points and using a credit card judiciously is not everyone's piece of cake. This is the reason why Slice came into being.

With a revolutionary idea to cause a disruption in the credit card landscape, Slice has decided to launch Slice cards or Slice super cards to give the users the freedom of slicing their total amount into 3 easily payable sums of money. This is after it initially was founded as a buy now, pay later service provider.

One thing that distinguishes Slice super cards from regular credit cards is that the Slice cards would not require any extras to be paid. Besides, by using these cards, one can also shop anytime, anywhere, and everywhere and even transfer the instant cashback to their banks, with numerous benefits attached to it. Thus, you won't have to pay any hidden charges to be paid later. The benefits of using Slice don't end here. Furthermore, Slice has also entered the UPI payments sector of India, which is seeing huge growth now across the Indian subcontinent and the world. All of these pivots and the growth that Slice has witnessed, which is also counted among the Indian unicorn startups, are some of the things that make the Slice success story an important and interesting read.

Pivoting a new model of providing classic term loans, Slice decided to make a new way forward in response to the RBI-announced restrictions on the provision of credit lines for non-bank prepaid instrument (wallet) providers.

To know what's more to it, read the article below to get a deep insight into Slice startup story, founder, funding, revenue, valuation, business model, revenue model, future plans, and more!

Slice Company Highlights

Slice - About
Slice - Startup Story
Slice - Mission and Vision
Slice - Name, Tagline and Logo
Slice - Founder and Team
Slice - Target Market
Slice - Business Model
Slice - Revenue Model
Slice - Startup Challenges
Slice - Funding and Investors
Slice - Growth and Revenue
Slice - Products and Services
Slice - Partnership
Slice - Sponsorship
Slice - Acquistion
Slice - Investment
Slice - Competitors
Slice - Future Plans

Slice - About

Slice is a Bengaluru-based payment and credit startup that extends hassle-free payment cards to deal with your daily payments, which can also be converted into Equated Monthly Installments, or EMIs, for the ease of the user without any added expense.

Slice cards, also referred to as Slice Super cards, are zero-fee cards that can be utilized to make transactions both online and offline. The Slice super cards have grown to be one of the leading competitors of traditional credit cards. With these, you can make payments instantly to e-wallets like PhonePe, Google Pay, etc.

Furthermore, Slice also claims to reward users with up to 2% cashback on every transaction. These cards are looking forward to redesigning the economic experience of all the common people. Slice is an enthusiastic unicorn fintech startup that crossed the $1 billion valuation mark on November 29, 2021.

Slice cards have completely changed the way people used to pay! Credit cards are no longer a burden! The process is now smoother and more transparent than usual. The credit limit starts from Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 10 lakhs. Slice provides its consumers with the longest interest-free installments. Since the company deals with the cardholders in full clarity, it has turned out to be a very positive aspect towards gaining trust and referrals.

Slice founder and CEO Rajan Bajaj aims to hand powerful and relevant financial products to young India so that they can start building their credit scores right from the beginning.

“We saw the need for a payment card with a credit line. As the card is interlinked with Slice’s interactive app, the user gets regular data on expenses, insights on spending patterns, regular repayment reminders, and suggestions to convert dues to monthly EMIs in case there are difficulties in paying the whole amount. All this leads to good credit habits," he added.

Slice - Startup Story

We have all heard at least once that credit cards can make one's life easier! But is it actually so? Well, it is far from the truth! Nowadays, getting one such card is becoming increasingly difficult, and this first step often leads to more hassles. One needs to have a decent job to drop himself or herself into a specific income bracket in order to qualify for it.

Besides, these cards involve higher interest rates too, as already mentioned above. Getting to know all these loopholes in the whole credit industry, Rajan Bajaj, the founder-CEO of the company, came up with a product that would be simple, easily accessible, and usable for the masses. Along with the hurdles faced by others, as reported by Bajaj, it was primarily the hassles that he himself faced, being an avid credit card user, that enkindled the spirit of entrepreneurship in Rajan.

Rajan was only 22 years of age when he founded the startup. He knew that credit cards were one such thing that ensued numerous hassles and plagued the whole generation, especially those who hail from middle-class families in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Besides, he also took a keen interest in the banking space. All of these led to the development of Slice.

Target Market of Slice

The target audience of Slice is college and university students and early-age business associates, who are often declared ineligible for the usual credit cards. The aim of Slice is to simplify financial products for young people. Besides, freelancers, startups, and other individuals often wish to experience the pleasure of having credit cards. This is the reason why Slice came into existence—to change the game. The average age of Slice customers is 22 years.

Slice - Mission and Vision

Slice is on a mission to ease access to credit in India. The company is looking to change this by helping the students get credit options to buy their books or other relevant products like laptops and mobile phones, which they can then repay in monthly instalments.

The goal of Team Slice is to build a transparent, modern, and simple financial platform for the Indian youth community.

Slice - Name, Tagline and Logo

The name Slice comes from the unique feature of slicing a particular amount or bill into three without having to pay anything extra, which the Slice app offers.

Slice often chooses the phrase "India’s best credit card challenger" to define itself and its products, which can be considered the Slice tagline.

The Slice logo is colored white with a purple background and denotes the slicing of a quarter circle.

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Slice - Founder and Team

The founder of the company, Slice, is Rajan Bajaj.

Rajan Bajaj

He is the founder and the CEO of the company. Rajan began his career as a business analyst intern at Walmart. He was also the founder of the company Mesh Internet. Rajan has pursued his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

Slice currently has somewhere around 1,001–5,000 employees, as mentioned in its LinkedIn profile.

Slice - Business Model

The Slice business model revolved around subvention income from merchants like Amazon and Flipkart for no-cost EMIs. Furthermore, it also took into consideration the interchange income from cards, interest income from EMIs, and more.

The Slice cards provided the users with the following information:

• Daily data on payments
• Knowledge about the spending pattern
• Regular expenses indications
• Recommendations to convert dues to EMIs (if only facing difficulties in paying the entire amount)

Slice has significantly altered its model of business after the RBI announced that no non-bank prepaid instrument (wallet) providers like Slice can offer credit lines. Slice has pivoted with the offering of classic term loans, as per reports dated July 20, 2022.

The company informed its users via email that it will stand as a provider of classic term loans in July 2022. This new credit disbursal mechanism is referred to as “purchase power.". This purchase power would help the customers borrow an amount from the company. So, as soon as a user uses his or her Slice card, the best amount to be borrowed will be reflected right away, which will be on par with their credit limit or the maximum amount that the lender has decided to borrow.

This means that the flexible, borrower-friendly terms would be replaced by a service that would be similar to regular credit cards but without the fixed credit limit. Slice will now analyze the creditworthiness of the borrowers while proceeding with every single transaction, which previously offered credit lines for them.

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Slice - Revenue Model

Slice mainly earns via handling fees and commissions that contribute centrally to its revenue collections. To sum up, the Rajan Bajaj-led micro-credit platform earns via:

• Income from the interests
• Fees from the EMI partners
• Late fees
• Interchange income
• Commissions earned from the partner merchants
• Its subsidiary, NBFC (Quadrillion),

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Slice - Startup Challenges

One of the earliest challenges that startups face is raising the capital required to make a head start and hire a competent team, but Slice had no such major issues with it. The only obstacle that Slice had to face when it started off was convincing the lenders, who were shying away from extending credit to the youngsters.

Building adequate systems to manage risk was the next hurdle that Slice needed to overcome. The third challenge that Slice is still battling against is to keep serving its customers in the best possible way, thereby enriching the overall customer experience.

Some other challenges of Slice include a low adoption rate and high chances of defaults.

Slice App Flagged by Google Play Store

The Google Play Store flagged the Slice app as harmful, as per reports dated June 30, 2022. The Google store of apps warned that the Slice app was harmful as it tries to spy on customers and their personal data and had recommended that they delete the same from their phones.

RBI Notification Challenges Slice

The RBI notified the NBFCs in June 2022 that they would be barred from offering credit on PPI. This means that Slice will no longer be able to challenge the credit cards as easily as it did before. These challenges in the past year (2021, marred much of the Slice momentum. In response to the same, Slice announced that it has switched to the model of providing classic term loans in place of providing credit lines via the Slice app.

Slice - Funding and Investors

In June 2024, Slice secured $20 million (approximately INR 170 crore) in debt funding from Neo Asset Management's Credit Opportunities Fund, according to regulatory filings from the fintech startup. The funding is part of a total $30 million (about INR 255 crore) debt round. While Slice has received $20 million, the remainder is anticipated to be received soon.

Slice achieved unicorn startup status on November 29, 2021, securing $220 million in funding. The company joins India's list of Unicorn Startups, becoming the 31st to achieve this milestone in 2021. As of March 2023, Slice is valued at $1.8 billion.

Slice is funded by eight lead investors. The most recent investor is Stride Ventures.

Slice Shareholders

Among the shareholders of Slice, Tiger Global and Moore Strategic own 7.82% and 3.05% stakes in the company, respectively, while Insight Partners commands a 6.58% stake.

Slice - ESOPs

Slice announced an ESOP buyback programme in February 2022 that is worth Rs 65 crore. Around 60 former and existing employees of Slice who hold vested options in the company were eligible for the buyback.

Slice - Growth and Revenue

Slice has already crossed the one million mark of transactions through its app within 5 months after the company launched its first physical card in May 2019. 60% of the transactions were done offline, and the rest, 40%, were done online back then. Slice had last boasted of having a user base of 12 million and mentioned that it was operating in over 16 cities.

Slice has claimed that the platform is growing over 40% month-on-month. It had been looking to launch its UPI product for quite some time until it finally launched the same on May 19, 2022. Slice now seeks to be a payments-first UPI company rather than a credit-based startup.

Slice started its game as a buy now, pay later (BNPL) company in 2016, which soon pivoted with its card product in 2019, and now the company has again pivoted with its UPI product, thereby entering the already crowded market dominated by top-of-the-line players like PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, BharatPe and more.

Slice is a unicorn startup in India, whose valuation increased by 5X within six months of its existence. Besides, it was also revealed when the startup turned unicorn that the company was issuing 2 lakh Slice cards per month, which rose from 20K at the beginning of 2021. In 2022, this went further up to become 3 lakh cards issued per month.

With Slice embracing classic term loans as a central part of their offering after the RBI announced in June 2022 that non-bank prepaid instrument (wallet) providers such as Slice can no longer offer credit lines, it is interesting to watch how the unicorn grows.

Slice Financials and Revenue

Slice operating revenue increased from INR 283.1 crore in FY22 to INR 846.7 crore in FY23. In terms of profit and loss, Slice's losses increased from INR 253.7 crore in FY22 to INR 405.8 crore in FY23.

Expenses

Slice's total expenses have increased from INR 542.5 crore in FY22 to INR 1,272.6 crore in FY23.

EBITDA

Slice's EBITDA and ROCE margin stood at -25% and -22% respectively. This rise in scale helped the fintech startup improve its expense-to-revenue ratio in FY23. To earn a rupee, Slice spent INR 1.50 in FY23.

Slice - Products and Services

Some of the prominent products of Slice are:

SlicePay

Slice has launched a student payment card with a limit of up to 1 lakh to help undeserved students and freelancers in November 2019.

Slice Pivoted with Slice Card

Slice added their own Slice card in 2019 and claims to add around 200K cards each month, as reported in December 2021.

The average revenue run rate of the company is $100 million. Slice processes $265 million (Rs 2000 crore) worth of gross transactional value (GTV) each month.

Slice is working on adding amazing features to change the stereotypical system of people being engaged with their credit cards. Reports also say that Slice is looking forward to adding rewards to the app because its goal is to turn the normal plastic card into a greater financial tool.

Purchase Power Feature

Slice introduced a feature called "purchase power" to users in July 2022 to evaluate each transaction made by consumers and determine if it will be executed.

Slice Launched its UPI Product

Slice launched its UPI payments feature, which can be availed of by its waiting list of 10 million customers who have not been able to get access to credit yet.

Slice - Partnership

Slice has partnerships with the following companies:

• Quadrillion Finance Private Limited
• DMI Finance Private Limited
• Northern Arc Capital Limited
• Vivriti Capital Limited (Formerly known as Vivriti Capital Private Limited)
• Poonawalla Fincorp Limited (formerly known as MAGMA FINCORP LIMITED)
• Hinduja Leyland Finance Ltd
• SBM Bank (India) Ltd

Slice - Sponsorship

A three-year agreement between the fintech firm Slice and the Mumbai Indians cricket team in the Indian Premier League has been announced in January 2022, and Slice will be the principal sponsor. All of the Mumbai Indians' official jerseys will include the company's logo on the front as part of the agreement. The collaboration will be the business's first foray into sports sponsorships.

Slice - Acquistion

Slice has acquired one company to date.

Slice - Investment

Slice invested in North East Finance Bank on March 8, 2023.

Slice - Competitors

The top competitors of Slice are LazyPay, ZestMoney, and KreditBee.

LazyPay

LazyPay is among the top competitors of Slice. The company is headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India, and was founded in 2017. LazyPay works in the Fintech sector.

ZestMoney

ZestMoney is perceived as one of the top competitors of Slice. The company is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, and was founded in 2015. ZestMoney also works in the fintech field.

KreditBee

KreditBee is another competitor of Slice Card. The company is headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, and was founded in 2018. KreditBee also operates in the Fintech industry just like the above-mentioned companies.

Slice - Future Plans

Slice looks forward to having around 150 million users who would opt for credit cards or BNPL products over the next 5–7 years. Furthermore, the unicorn credit startup also aims to extend its presence to over 24 cities by the end of 2022, most of which would be in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

In March 2024, fintech unicorn Slice, received CCI approval to merge with Guwahati-based North East Small Finance Bank (NESFB). Approved by the RBI in October 2023, this merger aims to expand Slice's financial services to northeastern states and West Bengal beyond Tier I cities. Slice is now waiting for approval from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for its merger. Once approved, the fintech startup will obtain a banking license.

FAQs

Who is the payment app slice company owner?

Rajan Bajaj is the Founder & CEO of Slice, the payment app.

Where can I use my Slice card?

Sliced super cards can be used in a wide variety of ways. For example, you can always use it for transactions with all online and offline merchants where you can pay with credit or debit cards, excluding those merchants who prefer payments via prepaid wallets. Some merchants might allow the Slice cards only in the debit card section, while others stick to the credit card section, where users will need to use their Slice pay cards.

Slice company belongs to which country?

Slice company was founded in 2016 and has its headquarters in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

What is a Slice Pay card?

Slice brings its own payment cards, known as Slice pay cards or Slice super cards. These cards don't have any hidden charges and are zero-fee cards that can be used to pay e-commerce websites and other merchants in place of debit or credit cards. Furthermore, with these cards, you would also be able to slice your total bill into 2, 3, or more EMIs that will continue for a period of 12 months without any added charges.

What are the Slice credit card benefits?

Slice cards or slice super cards help the users slice their total amount into three easily payable sums of money. The Slice credit cards don't require any extra amount to be paid.

What are slice charges?

Slice charges are nil for joining or renewal. However, when the Slice card is used in the ATMs and if they need to be replaced, then these cards accrue some charges.