The day we met Parth Garg, we knew he was special. After an intro over Zoom, we scheduled a 24-hour trip to see him and the Aspora team in-person—and found them crammed into a Dubai hacker house, pushing tirelessly toward a major campaign. When we asked where we should go to discuss a possible partnership, Parth suggested perching on a few armless chairs in the apartment’s tiny, windowless and very active kitchen.

We ended up finding a spot to chat in our hotel that was a bit more comfortable for a three-hour meeting, but that moment reinforced what we already knew and loved about Parth: he was intensely focused on the company. Success in fintech often hinges on building not only in the right order, but also as quickly as possible. Parth is in the 99th percentile on both.

He is also smart, ambitious, decisive—and all the more impressive, self-taught. Born in India but growing up across the Middle East (where he played cricket, acted, participated in Physics Olympiads, and founded an NGO) Parth saw the roadblocks his parents and other non-resident Indians (NRIs) faced to participating in India’s economy. By age 21, he had dropped out of Stanford to solve the problem himself with Aspora.

The Indian diaspora represents one percent of the country’s population, but has a massively outsized impact on its economy. These 15 million NRIs don’t just send money home to their families. They also invest in the booming Indian stock market, take out loans, and account for close to a quarter of the country’s real estate transactions. But opening an NRI account with a legacy bank is still a painful, months-long process of mailing paper forms and even flying back to sign in-person.

This is a problem for Indians abroad, but also for most other immigrant communities. Aspora is bringing diaspora banking into the modern age, with fully digitized services to allow global diasporas to participate in their home countries’ growth stories—starting with non-resident Indians around the world. Parth and his team have already transformed remittances for these customers, streamlining the process of sending money home at half the cost of competing solutions. Next, Aspora will expand to offer a comprehensive neobanking product, with access to local savings, investing and more. And the product is just the beginning of Aspora’s growth: while the NRI market itself is massive, it is just one of many diasporas that want to support the economy at home.

We at Sequoia were privileged to be among Aspora’s first believers when we led their Series A late last year, and in the few short months since, their performance has reached new heights. Like Parth himself, the team around him is relentlessly driven and intent on delighting their customers, delivering constant product improvements and drastically cutting transaction times. Their customers have responded in kind, and total payment volume has increased every month, to approximately $2B today. 

To stay ahead of that rapid growth, Aspora is ramping up hiring, looking for ambitious, hungry people to help them solve this complex problem. If you are interested in joining this remarkable team, please reach out. 

As Parth worked out of Sequoia’s London office in recent months, we’ve had a firsthand view of his leadership. He is a dynamo, with maturity to match his intensity and an ability to go deep on every aspect of the business, and our conviction in him and the high-caliber Aspora team has only grown. We are excited to support them as they scale—and as Aspora expands into the U.S., Canada and Europe—by doubling down and co-leading their Series B.

Aspora’s new HQ here in London is a far cry from that crowded apartment where we first met, but Parth and his team remain fiercely focused on the same mission that drove them back then. We can’t wait to see how they bring digital banking, and new opportunities, to immigrants all over the world.