Project XBY

Asia-Pacific · GDP rank #5

India

IN · INR @ 0.0104/USD

The single most important instant-payments story in the world. UPI cleared 22.35 billion transactions and ₹29 lakh crore (~US$340bn) in April 2026 alone, a +25% YoY expansion. The policy architecture (UPI + RuPay + Aadhaar-eKYC + Account Aggregator + ONDC) is the de facto reference stack for emerging-market digital finance. India is one of five founding IPSs inside BIS Project Nexus.

Tab 07

Fintech & disruption

The world's most closely-watched fintech market. India has more fintech unicorns than any country except the US and China, and the public-markets pipeline (Swiggy 2024, PhonePe pending, Pine Labs pending, Zepto pending, Groww pending) is deep. Post the RBI's 2022-24 supervisory tightening on lending apps, PPI wallets and offshore structures, the surviving cohort is regulated, profitable-path-oriented and more focused on B2B/infrastructure than B2C acquisition. Valuations have recovered from 2023 lows.

Fintech funding · LTM

US$2.8B▲ +12% vs Apr 2024–Mar 2025

USD · Apr 2025–Mar 2026

Largest unicorn

₹540B

Paytm (One97 Communications)

Unicorns

PhonePe

US$12B

UPI / payments super-app

Bangalore · founded 2015

PhonePe

Razorpay

US$7.5B

PSP / B2B payments

Bangalore · founded 2014

Razorpay

Pine Labs

US$3.5B

merchant services / POS

Noida · founded 1998

Pine Labs

Cred

US$6.4B

consumer credit / rewards

Bangalore · founded 2018

Cred

Paytm (One97 Communications)

₹540B

payments / lending

Noida · founded 2010

Paytm

Funding

Largest disclosed rounds · LTM

Rounds shown are the largest disclosed in the last twelve months. Private markets remain opaque — valuations at follow-on are the most reliable signal of investor conviction.

Round size

  • PerfiosUS$229M

    Series D · 2024-09-11

  • Fibe (formerly EarlySalary)US$120M

    Series E · 2025-11-04

Emerging categories

Credit-on-UPI

scaling₹80B+

INR · FY2025

  • HDFC Bank
  • ICICI Bank
  • Axis Bank
  • SBI
  • PhonePe PPB lending partners

RBI-enabled September 2023; pre-sanctioned credit lines accessible via UPI.

Source · NPCI

Account Aggregator ecosystem

scaling115M+

consents · Q4 2025

  • Perfios OneMoney
  • Finvu (Cookiejar)
  • Anumati
  • Yodlee Finsoft

RBI NBFC-AA licensing framework.

Source · Sahamati

ONDC-adjacent commerce + payments

emerging~6M/month

transactions · Dec 2025

  • PhonePe Pincode
  • Paytm ONDC
  • Namma Yatri (mobility)
  • Meesho

Section 8 company; government-seeded commerce interoperability network.

Source · ONDC

Embedded finance
  • ▌Zomato + ICICI Bank embedded co-branded credit card
  • ▌Tata Neu + HDFC Bank embedded super-app cards
  • ▌Swiggy + Jupiter embedded BNPL for groceries
  • ▌Flipkart + Axis Bank embedded credit