Sequoia-Backed Aspora Launches India Bill Pay for NRIs

Sequoia-backed fintech platform Aspora has launched a new bill payment feature allowing the Indian diaspora in the United Kingdom to pay utility bills and recharge mobile plans directly for their families back home, eliminating complex cross-border transfer workarounds.

Eliminating High Fees and Complex Workarounds

Prior to this launch, non-resident Indians (NRIs) had to navigate complex processes to manage household expenses back home. Users were forced to either transfer funds to their local Indian bank accounts first or coordinate with relatives in India to handle the bills manually. The alternative involved using foreign credit or debit cards on Indian platforms, which frequently resulted in exorbitant transaction fees and high rates of payment failure.

Seamless Integration With India’s Payment Infrastructure

To solve this friction, Aspora integrated with the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) through Yes Bank’s domestic pipeline. This connection enables users to settle payments for over 22,000 Indian billers. The supported services range from major electricity providers like BSES and BESCOM to broadband services from Jio and Airtel, as well as loan installments for major financial institutions.

The fintech startup is offering this service completely fee-free, ensuring users receive competitive exchange rates to settle bills directly in foreign currencies without hidden markups.

Strategic Partnerships to Expand Coverage

“For millions of Indians living overseas, paying bills in India has always been unnecessarily complex — involving transfers, delays, and double fees. Aspora has now solved this large-scale problem at the tap of a button,” Aspora founder and CEO Parth Garg explained.

Aspora successfully piloted the feature with several thousand users over a few weeks, identifying mobile recharges as a primary use case. Because BBPS does not natively support certain categories for foreign payers, such as direct mobile top-ups, Aspora collaborated with international mobile recharge provider Ding to facilitate these specific transactions.

Driving User Retention and Global Expansion

While Garg acknowledges that direct bill payments might decrease traditional remittance volumes by 4% to 5%, he emphasizes that the feature will build vital long-term user engagement.

“Today, the goal for any neobank is to drive continuous transaction volume on your app,” Garg stated. “With traditional remittances, users typically access the app only once or twice a month. This new bill payment feature accelerates transaction velocity on our platform and encourages users to visit much more frequently.”

While currently live for customers in the United Kingdom, the company plans to roll out the bill-paying feature to users in the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the near future.

Strong Financial Backing and Growth Milestones

This product expansion follows Aspora’s $50 million Series B funding round, which valued the company at $500 million. Led by Sequoia, the round also saw participation from Greylock, Hummingbird, Quantum Light Ventures, and Y Combinator, bringing Aspora’s total funding to over $99 million.

The startup expanded its services to the U.S. market in July, targeting the largest source of inward remittances to India, which commands nearly a 28% market share according to the Reserve Bank of India.

To date, Aspora has amassed 800,000 customers who have transacted over $4 billion, saving an estimated $25 million in transfer fees. Looking ahead to next year, the fintech plans to launch Non-Resident External (NRE) accounts to help users manage foreign income, alongside Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) accounts for managing income generated within India.