From Idea to Unicorn: How Slice Became a $380M Success

Have you ever wondered what it really takes to build a startup that raises over $380 million across 15 rounds? What if you could create the next marketplace unicorn from scratch?

Grab a seat — we’re about to dive into the high-energy journey of Slice, a startup that did exactly that. This isn’t just another success story; it’s a playbook for aspiring marketplace founders with big dreams and the drive to chase them.

Slice’s rise to the top is nothing short of inspirational. In a few short years, this company went from a bold idea to a powerhouse with a unicorn valuation (yes, over $1 billion fintechfutures.com). And the best part? Slice’s story is full of clues about how marketplace models operate and scale to massive success.

By the end of this post, you’ll see exactly how they did it — and how you can apply those lessons to build your own thriving marketplace (hint: you don’t need millions in the bank to start, especially with modern tools like Ordering.co at your fingertips).

"Success isn't reserved for the lucky. It's reserved for the relentless."

The Slice Story: From Frustration to $380M Phenomenon

Let’s start at the beginning. Slice was founded in 2015 by Rajan Bajaj, who, like many great founders, started with a frustration. He noticed that in India, young people were being shut out of basic financial servicesorangeowl.marketing. “I was frustrated seeing how banks treated young people when it came to credit,” Bajaj later remarked, reflecting on the spark that ignited Slice orangeowl.marketing.

That frustration was a problem begging for a solution – the kind of real, painful problem that ambitious founders turn into golden opportunities.

Picture this: A recent grad in 2016 tries to get a credit card, only to be rejected because they have no credit history. Multiply that by millions of students and early-career professionals. Bajaj saw an underserved audience — digitally savvy young Indians — who wanted financial access but were ignored by traditional banksorangeowl.marketing. He set out to change that.

Slice’s mission from day one was bold and clear: give the next generation a financial platform built for them. “We’re building something that puts the customer first, simplifies finance, and brings dignity to credit,” Bajaj said, capturing the heart of Slice’s vision orangeowl.marketing.

Starting a company is never a straight line, and Slice’s early journey was full of experiments and pivots. In fact, Slice wasn’t even “Slice” at the start – Bajaj’s first venture was a rental startup called Mesh, which taught him about customer pain points and set the stage for what was to come fintechfutures.comorangeowl.marketing.

He then launched Buddy, a “buy now, pay later” app, before finally zeroing in on what Slice would become – a fintech platform issuing its own cards and credit solutions by 2019fintechfutures.com. This willingness to adapt and stay agile proved to be crucial (more on that later).

By focusing relentlessly on the needs of young users, Slice started to catch fire. Its signature product, the Slice Super Card, was a simple, mobile-first credit card alternative designed for first-time credit users orangeowl.marketing.

No hidden fees, no intimidating fine print – just a sleek app, instant approvals, and a friendly interface. In an industry known for complexity, Slice won users by being transparent and user-friendly. It turned the once-daunting credit experience into something people wanted to use.

The result? A rapidly growing community of enthusiastic customers. As of 2025, Slice serves over 17 million users across India orangeowl.marketing – that’s a massive base built in under a decade, a true testament to product-market fit and word-of-mouth buzz.

Of course, such growth doesn’t go unnoticed. Investors came knocking hard. Slice’s fundraising journey reads like a startup fairy tale: early seed funding in 2016, a Series A by 2017, and then bigger and bigger rounds as the vision proved itself.

The real inflection point came in late 2021 when Slice raised a $220 million Series B, co-led by global venture giants Tiger Global and Insight Partnersfintechfutures.com. That round launched Slice into India’s unicorn club with a valuation north of $1B fintechfutures.com.

And the momentum didn’t slow down. By mid-2024, Slice had amassed a total of $380.87 million in funding across 15 rounds orangeowl.marketing – fuel to supercharge its growth. Each round wasn’t just about the money; it was about building the rocket ship piece by piece: more talent, better tech, and expanded services to serve their marketplace of users.

If you think Slice stopped there, think again. In October 2024, Slice made a bold move that most startups only dream of – it merged with an actual bank orangeowl.marketing! By merging with North East Small Finance Bank (with regulatory approval from the RBI), Slice effectively evolved from a startup into a regulated banking entity.

This move gave Slice a leg up: access to a banking license, the ability to offer new products, and a foundation to scale even further without compromising its mission orangeowl.marketingorangeowl.marketing. Talk about playing the long game: Slice wasn’t content to just be an app or a marketplace; it aimed to become an institution.

As Bajaj put it, “We are building a bank that aligns with the lifestyle of today’s India.” orangeowl.marketing In other words, Slice is thinking bigger than any one product – it’s aiming to drive a movement of financial empowerment for the new generation.

From a frustrated founder with a daring idea to a fintech unicorn that’s rewriting the rules, the story of Slice is rich with insights. It’s not just about the money raised or the millions of users – it’s about how they got there. So, what can you learn from this journey as an aspiring marketplace founder? Let’s break it down.

Why Slice Won: Key Insights for Marketplace Builders

Slice’s meteoric rise wasn’t an accident. It was driven by smart strategies and principles that any marketplace or platform startup can apply. Here are the key lessons from Slice’s success – consider these your cheat sheet for building a thriving marketplace:

1. Solve a Real Problem for a Niche Audience. The foundation of Slice’s success was solving a tangible pain point for a very specific group: young, underbanked Indians. Instead of going broad, Slice zoomed in on a neglected audience and delivered exactly what they needed.

   1. They didn’t try to boil the ocean; they became the best at one thing. As founder Rajan Bajaj explains, “We didn’t invent credit. We just made it usable for the next generation.”orangeowl.marketing By addressing a real gap in the market (credit access for youth) with a solution tailored to that niche, Slice built an early user base that loved the product. Takeaway for you: Don’t try to be everything to everyone at the start. Find that one underserved segment or problem and nail it. Solve a painful problem better than anyone else, and users will beat a path to your door.

2. Break the Rules (When They Don’t Make Sense). Traditional players in credit and marketplaces often cling to old rules. Slice chose to rewrite them. For example, banks relied solely on rigid credit scores and paperwork, which shut out young people. Slice threw out that playbook and used innovative methods (like alternative data from education and smartphone usage) to evaluate creditworthinessorangeowl.marketing.

   1. It bent the rules of the industry to include, rather than exclude, its target usersorangeowl.marketing. This kind of bold innovation is what separates disruptors from the rest. Lesson: If the “way things are done” is holding your idea back, have the courage to do things differently. Marketplace startups win by innovating on the model – whether that’s new ways to onboard customers, creative pricing strategies, or technology that changes the game. Don’t be reckless, but don’t be afraid to challenge industry norms that are ripe for change.

3. Build Trust Through Simplicity and Transparency. In any marketplace, trust is your currency. Users won’t adopt your platform if they don’t feel safe and informed. Slice understood this from day one. It took something inherently complex (credit cards, interest, fees) and made it simple. The app interface was clean, terms were clear, and there were no hidden fees or surprise chargesorangeowl.marketing. By translating financial jargon into plain language and offering a seamless user experience, Slice earned the trust of millions of first-time customers.

   1. They proved that simplicity sells – people flocked to the platform because they actually understood and trusted itorangeowl.marketing. Your move: Whatever your marketplace does (be it food delivery, B2B services, or a fintech product), make it easy and transparent. Remove friction, communicate clearly, and protect your users. Trust isn’t built overnight, but a frictionless experience and honest practices will get you there faster. When users trust you, they not only stick around – they tell their friends, and that’s how marketplaces grow exponentially.

4. Stay Agile, But Stay True to Your Mission. Slice’s journey had twists and turns – early product pivots, regulatory changes, a major merger – yet through it all, the core mission never wavered. The team stayed agile, adjusting their tactics while keeping their eyes on the prize: empowering young consumers financiallyorangeowl.marketing. When India’s regulations shifted, Slice didn’t throw up its hands; it responded with a strategic bank merger that kept the mission alive and thrivingorangeowl.marketing.

   1. This is a critical lesson for any founder: be flexible in how you get to your goal, but be inflexible about the goal itself. If a strategy isn’t working or the landscape changes, pivot – just like Slice did from Mesh to Buddy to the Slice card modelfintechfutures.com – but make sure each change still serves your overarching vision. Agility is your best friend in the chaotic startup world. Just remember, agility doesn’t mean chasing every shiny object; it means quickly course-correcting to stay on the path to your mission. The founders of Slice exemplified this, and it’s a big reason they’re on top today.

5. Think Bigger: Make It a Movement, Not Just a Product. Perhaps the most inspiring part of Slice’s story is how it transcended being “just an app” or “just a card.” The team cultivated a sense of purpose and community around their brand. Slice stood for something: financial freedom and dignity for the next generation. They tapped into their users’ aspirations and made Slice a symbol of empowermentorangeowl.marketing.

   1. This vision turned customers into fans and a product into a movement. Bajaj famously said they wanted to build a product this generation would be proud to useorangeowl.marketing – and they did exactly that. For your marketplace, the lesson is gold: brand and culture matter. If you can articulate a mission that people rally behind, your startup becomes more than a marketplace; it becomes a part of your users’ identity. So dream big. Aim to change your corner of the world, not just to make a quick buck. When you inspire people, you create evangelists for your platform. That’s how you get sustainable, word-of-mouth growth that no marketing budget can buy.

Now, take a step back and look at those five insights. Do they sound abstract? They shouldn’t — because Slice is living proof that these principles work. Solve a real problem, innovate boldly, build trust, stay agile, and inspire your audience, and you might just see your startup’s metrics shoot up into the stratosphere. In Slice’s case, the reward was millions of users and hundreds of millions in funding. In your case, who knows? Sky’s the limit.

And here’s something exciting: it’s never been easier to implement these lessons than it is today. Unlike back in 2015 when Slice was starting, today you have powerful tools to accelerate your journey. For instance, you don’t need to build all your technology from scratch or raise a fortune to create a polished platform.

Modern solutions like Ordering.co give you a ready-made marketplace platform – so you can focus on executing the lessons above, while the heavy tech lifting is handled for you. Think about it: Slice had to spend years and millions building their infrastructure. You, on the other hand, can leverage an all-in-one solution and get your marketplace idea off the ground in a fraction of the time and cost.

Why reinvent the wheel when the #1 online ordering and delivery platform for marketplaces is available to jumpstart your visionordering.coordering.co? As a founder, your time is best spent on your vision and growth, not re-coding basic marketplace features from scratchordering.co. Use what’s already proven and scale on your termsordering.co.

Your Turn: Build the Next Slice-Level Success with Ordering.co

By now, you might be feeling a mix of excitement and fire in your belly. Slice’s story shows that massive success is possible when you combine vision, execution, and relentless focus on your market. The question is: what will you do with that knowledge? This is where we shift from Slice’s journey to yours.

Imagine writing the next success story — your success story — a few years from now. What problem will you solve? What community will you empower? And how big can that idea become when you give it everything you’ve got? These aren’t hypotheticals for someone else; these are real questions for you, the aspiring marketplace founder reading this.

The beautiful truth is, all the tools and support you need are within reach. You’ve got battle-tested wisdom from stories like Slice’s, and you’ve got platforms like Ordering.co ready to be your technical co-founder. Ordering.co is the ideal solution for anyone looking to build the next Slice-level marketplace success.

Why? It removes the typical barriers that slow founders down. It’s a fully white-labeled, scalable marketplace platform that lets you launch quickly and professionally — no need to sink months into development or worry about infrastructure scaling on day oneordering.coordering.co.

Many entrepreneurs have already used it to spin up marketplaces for restaurants, local services, and more, keeping 100% ownership of their brand and customer experience (zero middlemen, zero hefty commissions skimming off your profits)ordering.co. In short, it lets you focus on what truly matters: growing your business and delivering value to your users, just like Slice did.

So ask yourself right now: Why not me? The founders of Slice were once in your shoes — passionate individuals with a big idea and a lot of grit. They took action, stayed persistent, and built something extraordinary.

You can do the same. The next massive marketplace success could come from you, provided you take that first step and keep pushing forward. Remember, every unicorn was once a startup hustling for its first customers and funding. Slice proved that when you solve a pressing problem and serve your customers like royalty, the market will reward you, sometimes beyond your wildest dreams.

In the end, building a $380M company isn’t about luck or having connections. It’s about execution and determination. It’s about leveraging every advantage available — from hard-won lessons to cutting-edge tools — to tilt the odds in your favor. You now have those lessons, and you have a clear path to the tools (if you haven’t already, check out Ordering.co and see how it can fast-track your marketplace ambitions). The only thing left is the most important ingredient: your action.

So here’s the big, final question, founder: Are you ready to take your shot? The marketplace revolution isn’t slowing down, and there’s always room for the next game-changing idea. The story of Slice has shown us what’s possible. Now it’s your turn to grab the opportunity. Dream it. Build it. Scale it. The next success story could be yours — but only if you get started.

Bold vision, relentless execution, and the right support – that’s the recipe. It’s time to make your move. The future belongs to the doers, so go on and build something amazing. Your unicorn journey awaits! 🚀

“Work like your success depends on it — because it does.”