India’s Slice raises $100 million at a revised valuation of around $450 million, marking a significant shift from its high-flying unicorn days to a regulated banking platform amid sector corrections.
Slice is set to complete its first fundraise as a licensed bank at a valuation of roughly $450 million to $470 million, a level that would leave the Bengaluru company worth less than a third of what investors once assigned to it at the height of India’s fintech boom. The proposed $100 million round, described by Mint and other outlets as a mix of fresh capital and share purchases from existing holders, marks one of the sharpest recent repricings for a once high-flying consumer finance start-up.
According to an extraordinary general meeting notice reviewed by Mint, Slice Small Finance Bank is seeking shareholder approval to raise ₹485 crore, with ₹403.47 crore coming through compulsorily convertible debentures and ₹81.49 crore through partly paid equity shares. The meeting was scheduled for 4 September 2026. Mint said Moore Strategic Ventures was lined up to invest ₹106 crore, Kado Global ₹95 crore, Blume Ventures ₹44 crore, Raise Fintech ₹40 crore and PixelSky Capital ₹25 crore. The Head and Tale separately identified Dhan parent Raise Financial among the backers, alongside Neo Wealth, Kado Global and Moore.
Not all of the $100 million is expected to land on Slice’s own balance sheet. Moneycontrol reported that the financing includes a secondary sale by existing investors, while Mint, citing a person familiar with the matter, put that portion at $5 million to $10 million. Moneycontrol also said Neo Wealth accounted for about $20 million to $25 million of the round by pooling money from high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. That report added that earlier fundraising discussions with Accel, Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners did not result in a deal, leaving Slice to turn to a different set of investors.
The markdown is dramatic, but it is not simply a story of investors losing faith in the business. Since its last major equity round, Slice has moved from the looser economics of consumer fintech into the more regulated world of banking, where balance-sheet strength, deposits, bad loans and cost of funds matter more than user-growth narratives. Inc42 reported that an investor note by Vikram Chachra of 8i Ventures valued the business at about 4.5 times book value, a more bank-like yardstick. Open Magazine quoted an unnamed private-equity professional arguing that the change reflects a broader market correction: “A unicorn valuation is a photograph of one funding round, not a permanent certificate of corporate worth,” he said, adding that the market has “started applying real transactions, real cash flows and real consequences to prices created during the funding carnival”.
That reset follows a radical remaking of the company Rajan Bajaj founded in 2016 as SlicePay. Mint said it started as a buy-now-pay-later platform aimed at students and young professionals, while Inc42 noted that its early model, built around credit and prepaid cards, was knocked off course by regulatory changes in 2022. Slice then moved to buy Guwahati-based North East Small Finance Bank, announcing the merger in October 2023. Mint described the transaction as India’s first merger between a fintech and a bank, with the deal closing on 27 October 2024 and the lender being renamed Slice Small Finance Bank in May 2025. Inc42 added that the company had previously joined the unicorn club in 2021 after a $220 million Series B led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners, before later raising another round in 2022.
The operating picture now looks healthier than the headline valuation collapse suggests. Mint said the inherited bank had been under severe strain before the merger, with its capital adequacy ratio at just 5.5% in fiscal 2023, well below the Reserve Bank of India’s 15% requirement for small finance banks. By the end of June this year, that figure had recovered to 18.17%. In the June quarter, Mint reported that deposits had doubled to ₹5,765 crore, advances had risen 56% to ₹5,039 crore and low-cost current and savings accounts made up 43.9% of deposits. Gross bad loans fell to 4.36% of advances from 6.31% a year earlier. Inc42 said total income rose 38.6% to ₹413.8 crore, while net profit came in at ₹50.9 crore against a loss of ₹10.1 crore a year earlier.
The fundraise also lands in a sector that is still sorting winners from overvalued promises. Mint said Indian fintechs raised $2 billion in the first half of 2026, up 42% from a year earlier, but early-stage funding dropped 41% to $367 million, according to Tracxn. It also pointed to the strain on neobanks that never secured licences of their own, noting that Fi shut banking services on its app in March after its tie-up with Federal Bank ended. Open Magazine placed Slice’s repricing alongside other steep valuation resets, citing Unacademy’s sale earlier in the week at 94% below its peak.
What Slice now offers investors is not the old fintech pitch but a licensed banking platform with a broader set of products and clearer regulatory standing. Moneycontrol noted that, unlike most Indian neobanks, Slice can now issue banking products directly. Inc42 said the bank has expanded into deposits, lending, UPI-linked credit and payments, and is building MSME and merchant lending lines. Fintech Global described its current consumer offering as spanning savings accounts, UPI credit cards, UPI ATMs, fixed deposits and loans. Whether that mix justifies fresh enthusiasm will depend less on the memory of its unicorn years than on whether its banking turnaround can keep delivering after the new money arrives.
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