Aspora’s founding team is building cross-border banking tools. The London-based startup just closed a $53 million Series B led by Sequoia and Greylock, with Revolut cofounder Nik Storonsky’s QuantumLight Ventures also chipping in. This brings total funding to roughly $93M in under a year; a rapid ramp-up that underscores investor confidence in Aspora’s niche. Aspora (rebranded from “Vance” in April 2025) is pitching itself as a verticalized bank built for cross-border lifestyles. In practice, it offers zero-fee or low-fee remittances (often at market-competitive “Google” exchange rates) and is adding multicurrency accounts, cross-border investing, credit and insurance products tailored to diaspora communities.

The goal: give people living abroad one unified app for sending money home and managing finances across countries, instead of juggling mismatched local bank apps.

Serving the global Indian diaspora

Aspora’s strategy is simple: solve the painful, expensive parts of cross-border banking first. Indians living in the UAE, UK and EU now use Aspora to send money home without hidden fees, saving the community millions. The platform already serves ~250,000 users (mostly NRIs in the Gulf) and has rapidly become a big remittance channel. In just the last six months, monthly remittance volume zoomed from roughly $400 million to over $2 billion , a six-fold increase.

Collectively Aspora’s customers have saved about $15–$16 million in banking fees so far. In short, Aspora is using fee-free transfers as a wedge product: win users on cheap remittance, then offer them higher-margin services like investment and credit across borders. CEO Parth Garg says Aspora is “just getting started” – the plan is to build out a full-stack migrant bank so that the next generation of global Indians can handle all their finances in one place .

$93M raised, top VCs in tow

It’s no coincidence that Aspora’s cap table reads like a fintech who’s-who. The Series B adds to a flurry of recent rounds: a $5M seed extension in Sept 2024 (led by Hummingbird Ventures), a previously unreported $35M Series A in Dec 2024 (led by Sequoia, with Greylock, Hummingbird, Global Founders, YC and others), and now this $53M series B. Existing backers – from Y Combinator to Soma Capital and more – all doubled down.

Most notably, Sequoia and Greylock both led again, and Nik Storonsky’s QuantumLight fund wrote a check, meaning the Revolut cofounder is now a backer. Landing Storonsky is a signal: these VCs see Aspora as a next-gen cross-border fintech opportunity. (Indeed, Sequoia partner Luciana Lixandru says Aspora is “bringing diaspora banking into the modern age” .)

For fintech founders, this underscores an important lesson: strong niche traction and smart investor relationships can snowball quickly. Showing off 6x volume growth and 250K users helped Aspora notch top-tier backers, which in turn lends credibility for further expansion.

Explosive growth and global expansion

Aspora is using its new war chest to go truly global. The startup already operates in the UK, UAE and across the EU , and it plans to launch in the US this July. By year-end it expects to be live in Canada, Australia and Singapore as well . In practical terms, that means Aspora will cover the biggest migrant corridors (especially Indian expats) as fast as possible. Its team is also rolling out new services beyond remittances: cross-border bank accounts, multi-asset investing (including Indian mutual funds), credit and insurance products.

In Aspora’s words, remittance is just the wedge; ultimately it wants to “build all the financial solutions that the diaspora needs”. The strategy is clear – capture a community with an acute pain point (costly money transfers) and use it as a springboard into broader services – and investors have rewarded it. The data is now on the table: big user growth, huge transaction volume (now approaching ~$2B) and millions saved in fees by customers.

Key takeaways for fintech founders

Aspora’s run highlights several points worth noting:

Own a niche: Aspora zeroed in on a specific group (Indian expats) and built features just for them. Solving a clear pain (rip-off remittance rates) helped it grow fast.
Leverage metrics as rocket fuel: 6× growth and 250K users became proof points. Investors love hard numbers – use your traction data (growth curves, fees saved, etc.) to tell your story.
Aim for marquee backers: Landing names like Sequoia, Greylock (and even Nik Storonsky’s fund) doesn’t just mean cash, it brings validation. Strong early investors can open doors to partners and media attention.
Build a product platform: Aspora started with remittance but is layering on banking, investing and credit. Think long-term: first win users with one killer feature, then expand the ecosystem around them.
Plan for global scale: If you’re a fintech with international ambition, design systems (tech, legal, banking partners) for multicurrency, multi-country use from the get-go.