B2B payments platform OweMe Raises $1 Million Seed Round From Pi Ventures

According to a statement released by the London based B2B money supply chain management platform OweMe, owned by Sabstone Ltd, they have recently raised a total of 1 million in seed round from Pi Ventures.

OweMe, the blockchain based platform, founded in 2016 by Nishant Singh and Nisha Singh, lets banks and companies supply money faster, and will be using the funds to develop the product and expand the team. The platform is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, in order to issue electronic money that enables companies to create, pay and track their own currency pegged against Fiat currencies so as to reduce friction and increase efficiency when it comes to financial matters. CEO of the Company, Nishant Singh said:

“Finance is viewed as a single entity issue for ages. Operationally firms have long since integrated their supply chains but there is a long way to go for financial integration. Today technology, regulation and market readiness can drive significant transformation in the way companies think about finance in their supply chains. We are very excited about the investment and the opportunities we can unveil with it.”

This deal marks the very first overseas investment conducted by Bengaluru based venture capital firm pi Ventures, founded by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni. The company generally deals with investing in early-stage start-ups operating in artificial intelligence and internet of things. Their recent investments comprise of software as a service (SaaS) start-up CustomerSuccessBox, logistics company Locus, health-tech firm SigTuple and NIRMAI, and medical wearable device firm ten3T, and others. Abhishek Surendran, a partner at the venture capital firm, said:

“The founders started the company in India but the regulatory framework in London was very supportive of their business and hence they decided to shift base. This is a one-off investment and not a strategy shift (for pi Ventures). We will continue to focus on India based AI (artificial intelligence) investments,” Abishek Surendran, partner at the venture capital firm told TechCircle.

Pi Ventures focuses on investments in applied AI and Internet of Things (IoT). In August this year, the firm raised Rs 225 crore ($31 million) for its debut fund, exceeding its initial target. The UK’s CDC Group came in as a Limited Partner in August. The fund has so far invested in startups such as SigTuple, Niramai, Ten3T and Locus.sh and exited energy management startup Zenatix in May.

Rishma Banerjee

Rishma is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has a special place in her life for sifting through all sorts of random trivia, thank you very much.