Equal, a Hyderabad-based identity verification company, has raised $10 million (about Rs 84 crore) in its first institutional round, led by Prosus Ventures, Tomales Bay Capital, and its founder Keshav Reddy.
According to the business, the startup's valuation increased to $80 million following the funding round. Reddy, a member of the GVK family that oversees the GVK Group, co-founded Equal in 2016 with Rajeev Ranjan, Swiggy's former head of engineering.
Equal is developing a platform that will help businesses expedite their know-your-customer (KYC) operations and avoid fraud, ultimately assisting with regulatory compliance through integration with approximately 50 identity databases.
In addition to significant institutional investors, the round included a number of renowned businessmen and a few other funds.
These include Blume Ventures (Founders Fund), DST Global, Quona VC, Gruhas VC, the fund controlled by Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath, Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal, Adani Group scion Karan Adani, Cred founder Kunal Shah, and JSW Cements' Parth Jindal.
"Equal will be a venture-backed corporation with a wide range of products. While we currently serve businesses, there is a possibility that we will expand into the consumer space," said Reddy.
The funding will be used to expand operations, form new strategic relationships, and create a general framework to improve India's data-sharing ecosystem.
"We are building three major technology stacks catering to different needs of companies - one is banking and financial services, second is an employment stack and third is the consumer tech stack," added Reddy.
Equal stated in August that it would invest in account aggregator platform OneMoney on a strategic basis. While that transaction is pending approval from the Reserve Bank of India, Equal intends to eventually expand into the regulated area and seek further licenses from financial regulators.
"Those plans are still at an early stage right now, but eventually we will get more regulated," says Reddy.
Equal serves over 350 significant business clients, including TVS Credit, Larsen & Toubro, and Upstox. The company comprises a team of approximately 65 workers, with headquarters in Hyderabad and sales offices in Bengaluru and Mumbai.
