HiWi raises $870k in Pre-seed round led by Unicorn India Ventures

By Gloria Mathias

HiWi, a global cross-border remittance FinTech, has secured INR 7.25 crore in a pre-seed funding round, with Unicorn India Ventures and the Unmaj Group Family Office.

The capital injection is earmarked for advancing product development and executing a strategic go-to-market rollout. The firm’s mission is to streamline these processes across various sectors, including Study Abroad, Trade and finance for SMEs, and industries confronted with intricate procedures.

HiWi’s inaugural offering is geared towards simplifying remittances for students studying abroad. The platform serves as a centralized and integrated solution for both study abroad agents and students, offering a comprehensive suite of financial services.

This includes a user-friendly mobile application for students to transfer funds, open foreign bank accounts, access financing options, manage card expenditures, and accrue loyalty points, all while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. HiWi aspires to assist more than 25,000 students in remitting $100 million and aims to onboard 5,000 educational consultants onto its platform.

Dewang Neralla, Founder of HiWi said, “I would like to thank Unicorn India Ventures and Unmaj Group for having confidence in HiWi’s vision to make cross-border remittances accessible and convenient for all stakeholders. Although our initial focus is on education, we plan to expand our services to cater to SMEs, further streamlining and enhancing the remittance process.”

Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures said, “Foreign education is an ever-growing market. At Unicorn, we have studied this segment and made investments both in study abroad and FinTech companies. HiWi is combining the power of tech and addressing a much-needed gap in facilitating cross-border payments that are easier and more convenient for both parents and students. The company is starting with foreign admission, but the product stack will be leveraged for other use cases post foreign admission, The future offerings canvas in this segment will give immense growth opportunities to HiWi.”

Overall, HiWi aims to address common pain points in international payments and aims to improve the user experience by leveraging modern technologies such as cloud computing and AI.