Venture Catalysts Bets Big on 7 Ring: ₹4 Crore Pre-Series A for Fintech Wearable Disruptor

Venture Catalysts has led a ₹4 crore Pre-Series A funding round in Seven, the pioneering Mumbai-based startup behind the 7 Ring—India’s first indigenous, contactless payment smart ring. The round also saw participation from existing backer Vinners (a SEBI-registered Category 1 AIF) and Anchorage Capital Partners, the investment arm of the Sheth family (promoters of The Great Eastern Shipping Company). This latest injection of funds aims to propel Seven’s expansion into mass retail, metro transit, and e-commerce, as the wearable fintech space heats up amid India’s ₹577 trillion digital payments boom projected by FY29.

The 7 Ring, which gained national attention on Shark Tank India, is a RuPay- and MasterCard-certified wearable that enables secure NFC-based tap-and-pay transactions without requiring a PIN, charging, or even a smartphone app. The device is powered by a prepaid wallet linked to UPI, making it a truly frictionless fintech solution built for scale. “The 7 Ring is a paradigm shift in how 1.4 billion Indians interact with currency,” said Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder of Venture Catalysts. “It’s stylish, secure, doesn’t need charging, and eliminates smartphone dependency—perfect for metro commuters, kirana stores, and millennials on the move.”

Seven plans to use the funds to ramp up production, launch a budget-friendly variant called 7 Ring Air (expected Q2 FY26), and expand its presence on Amazon, Flipkart, and urban transport infrastructure. The company is also pushing into NCMC (National Common Mobility Card) integration and credit card tokenization to widen its market reach.

Founded by Vijay Khubchandani, Mahek Savla, and Karthik Menon, Seven’s leadership team brings a powerful blend of fintech strategy and embedded systems expertise. The startup’s IP68-certified zirconia ceramic ring offers superior durability and earns revenue from both POS (1.08%) and metro interchange fees (0.40%), creating a robust dual-stream business model.

“We’re building more than a product—we’re building infrastructure,” said Vijay Khubchandani, Founder and CEO of Seven. “With this funding, we aim to deploy 30 lakh rings by 2028, tapping into India’s 15 million daily metro riders and 60 million UPI users.”

Seven’s growth plan includes rolling out smart rings across India’s metro systems, with pilots already underway, and aggressively targeting tier-1 and tier-2 cities via strategic retail partnerships.

 

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Recognized as India’s Top Early-Stage Investor in 2024 by The Kredible, Venture Catalysts has backed over 300 startups and syndicated more than $700 million, including success stories like BharatPe. Their investment in Seven reaffirms a strong belief in “wearable-first fintech” as the next big leap in India’s evolving digital economy.