Scapia Raises $63 Million Series C Led by General Catalyst to Scale India's AI-Powered Travel Fintech
Bengaluru startup Scapia has closed a $63M Series C led by General Catalyst at a post-money valuation exceeding $500 million, more than doubling its $200 million valuation from April 2025.
Editor's Note ·
- Clarification:
- The article quotes Anil Goteti (via Z47) as saying the round 'will help us strengthen our product suite further, bring more value to customers through more offerings, scale the brand and bring in the best talent.' The Z47 source reads 'bring more value to our customers through more offerings.' The word 'our' was omitted from the quotation.
Overview
Bengaluru-based travel fintech Scapia has raised $63 million in a Series C round led by General Catalyst, with existing backers Peak XV Partners and Z47 also participating. The all-equity round values the four-year-old startup at more than $500 million — more than doubling its valuation of approximately $200 million set in April 2025, according to TechCrunch.
What We Know
Scapia was founded in 2022 by Anil Goteti, who spent eight years at Flipkart before launching the company. The startup operates as an AI-first travel ecosystem anchored around a financial product: co-branded credit cards issued in partnership with Federal Bank and BOBCARD. Scapia was the first company in India to launch a dual-network co-branded credit card spanning both Visa and RuPay, the government-backed Indian payment network, according to BusinessToday.
Beyond the credit card, Scapia’s platform includes Scapia Pay — a rewards-first UPI payment experience — as well as airport privileges, zero forex markup on international spending, travel bookings, and an in-app commerce and experiences layer, per The Tech Portal. The company’s cards are accepted by merchants in more than 150 countries and serve cardholders across more than 17,500 Indian pincodes, according to Z47.
Growth metrics released alongside the funding announcement are notable. TechCrunch reports that flight bookings on its platform grew nearly six times over the past year, while hotel bookings increased about eightfold. Combined travel and card customer growth reached 7x over the same period, according to Z47.
One data point illustrates how Scapia is reshaping its value proposition: one in three users now redeems non-lounge airport privileges — shopping, dining, or duty-free offers — rather than the traditional lounge access that has long defined travel card perks. Goteti addressed this shift directly. “Lounges are getting quite crowded,” he told TechCrunch. “People actually are looking for an experience outside the lounge.”
The Series C is Scapia’s fourth funding round, following a $40 million Series B raised approximately one year prior, which was led by Peak XV, according to TechCrunch. The company currently employs approximately 250 people.
Goteti framed the new capital as fuel for both product and scale ambitions. “Today, Scapia is a comprehensive travel ecosystem powered by a financial product at its core, designed for a generation of Indians that treats travel as a way of life,” he said, per BusinessToday. In a separate statement, he added that the round “will help us strengthen our product suite further, bring more value to customers through more offerings, scale the brand and bring in the best talent,” according to Z47.
For General Catalyst, the bet is rooted in a generational shift in how younger Indians relate to travel. Neeraj Arora, CEO India & MENA at General Catalyst, said the firm was drawn to Scapia’s early insight. “Scapia understood early that a generation of Indians for whom travel is a baseline expectation, not an aspiration, needed a financial product designed around that identity,” he said, per BusinessToday.
Fresh capital will go toward expanding the customer base across India — with a specific focus on tier-2 and tier-3 cities where the company says it is already seeing a growing share of bookings — as well as product development, brand building, and AI-focused engineering and product hiring, according to BusinessToday.
What We Don’t Know
Scapia has not disclosed a specific timeline for profitability, the volume of active cardholders, or total transaction value processed to date. The company also has not announced whether a banking license application or initial public offering is part of its near-term roadmap. It is also unclear whether the Series C includes any secondary component or is fully primary capital.
Analysis
Scapia’s valuation trajectory — from $200 million to more than $500 million in roughly thirteen months, driven by a combination of strong travel-booking growth and an expanding financial product suite — is a reminder that India’s consumer fintech market has pockets of intense investor interest even as overall deal volumes remain selective.
The dual-network card strategy is structurally significant. By spanning both Visa’s global merchant network and RuPay’s UPI-linked credit line in a single product, Scapia sidesteps a traditional friction point for Indian cardholders who want international acceptance but also want to participate in India’s domestic instant-payment infrastructure. TechCrunch notes the competitive field includes Niyo, Ixigo, and global entrants such as Revolut, all of which are positioning for the same cohort of outbound Indian travelers.
The shift away from lounge access as the centerpiece reward is also notable. Scapia is betting that as India’s airports get more crowded — and as younger travelers prioritize experiences over status-marker amenities — the travel card that wins will be the one bundling the broadest airport ecosystem, not the one promising the quietest waiting room.