Belong, an NRI-focused fintech startup, has raised $5 million in a seed funding round led by Elevation Capital.
The round also saw participation from Relentless Ventures and angels such as Abhiraj Singh Bahl and Varun Khaitan (Urban Company), Akshant Goyal (Zomato CFO), Varun Alagh (Mamaearth), Vineet Sethi (PayU), and Aditya Sharma (McKinsey).
The funds raised will be used to acquire regulatory licences, scale its product suite, and expand across major NRI geographies such as the UAE, Gulf, UK, and US.
Founded in 2024 by Ankur Choudhary, Sai Sankar M, Ayush Singh, and Savitri Bobde, Belong is a fintech app built exclusively for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) looking to invest and save in India.
Built to simplify cross-border investing and financial management, Belong operates through GIFT City, India’s International Financial Services Centre.
Belong is offering these FDs in partnership with reputed Indian banks located in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), India’s up-and-coming global financial services hub, similar to Singapore.
GIFT City is not under Indian tax jurisdiction, and all earnings on Belong are fully tax-free in India. The deposits also offer flexible lock-in periods of 3 months and 6 months, compared to a minimum 1-year lock-in for FCNR deposits.
Alongside the USD-based FD service, Belong has also launched a dedicated India tax filing service for NRIs without the typical ‘NRI markup’ pricing.
Belong is powered by Betafront Technologies and its subsidiaries, Betafront Financial Services (IFSC), which holds a Payment Services Provider (PSP) license and Betafront Securities(IFSC, which holds the Broker Dealer license issued by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).
Ankur Choudhary, CEO and Co-Founder, Belong, said, “Our vision is simple: to make it easier for Indians to thrive globally while staying connected to India. Every NRI has built a global identity through hard work and ambition, but financial and non-financial services in India haven’t kept up. At Belong, with GIFT City FDs, NRIs get more flexibility in choosing shorter tenures and they are also protected against Rupee depreciation while enjoying tax-free returns in dollars.”
He added, “NRIs experience challenges when investing in India, such as complex and in-country KYC, high currency conversion charges, taxation on all Indian earnings, difficulty in repatriation of funds, and more. Belong set out to tackle these on behalf of NRIs, and GIFT City regulations work perfectly for the NRIs who still want to contribute and benefit from the India growth story.”
Vaas Bhaskar, Partner, Elevation Capital, said, “NRIs have long been underserved when it comes to modern, digital-first financial solutions tailored to their unique needs. Belong is uniquely positioned to serve this massive, underserved market by combining deep fintech expertise with GIFT City’s regulatory framework. We’re excited to back this exceptional team as they scale across key markets and build the go-to platform for everything India that global Indians need.”
