Page 3 - Fintech

India's fintech sector ranks 3rd globally in H1 2025 funding round: Tracxn

Bengaluru-led funding activity in India with overall startups raising $889 million, down 26% from H2 2024, shows Tracxn fintech report

India's fintech funding dips to $889 mn in H1 2025: Tracxn report

Indian fintech sector raised USD 889 million in the first six months of 2025, a drop of 26 per cent from USD 1.2 billion of H2 2024 and a five per cent slide from USD 936 million seen a year ago, according to a report by market intelligence platform Tracxn. As per the report, India ranked third globally, trailing only the United States and the United Kingdom. "While the Indian fintech sector has seen a temporary dip in funding, the steady momentum in early-stage investments and growing acquisition activity indicate that investor interest remains strong, particularly in scalable, innovation-led models," Neha Singh, Co-Founder of Tracxn, said. Bengaluru's dominance and the continued emergence of breakout companies reinforce India's position as a global fintech powerhouse, Singh added. Funding trends across stages in H1 2025 revealed a nuanced landscape for India's fintech sector as early-stage funding fared better than seed-stage and late-stage infusions. Seed-stage startups raised

Finance lobby groups will need to make cultural shift as they become SROs

A related concern is what if other financial sector regulators were also to latch on to the SRO idea? How does coordination happen between them in the case of financial conglomerates?

PB Fintech sells over 1% stake for ₹920 cr via open market transactions

PB Fintech's co-founders Yashish Dahiya and Alok Bansal divested a little over 1 per cent stake in the company for Rs 920 crore through open market transactions. PB Fintech's chief executive Dahiya and Vice Chairman Bansal sold a total of 50.50 lakh shares or 1.09 per cent stake in the company. PB Fintech is the parent of insurtech platform Policybazaar and fintech platform Paisabazar. According to the block deal data on the NSE, Ashish Dahiya offloaded a total of 34 lakh shares in two tranches, amounting to a 0.74 per cent stake in PB Fintech. In addition, Alok Bansal sold 16.50 lakh shares or 0.36 per cent holding in Gurugram-based PB Fintech, as per the data. The combined transaction was valued at around Rs 919.86 crore, executed at an average price of Rs 1,821.50 apiece. After the stake sale, Dahiya's holding in PB Fintech declined to 3.57 per cent from 4.31 per cent, and Bansal's stake fell to 1.04 per cent from 1.40 per cent. Meanwhile, the shares were picked up by a domes

PhonePe eyes $1.5 billion IPO, draft papers likely by early August

Kotak Mahindra Capital, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley have been enlisted to manage PhonePe's IPO

Nirmala Sitharaman ask fintechs to find solutions to prevent cyberfrauds

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday asked fintech startups to come out with solutions to deal with the rising incidence of digital arrests, cheating by fly-by-night operators, and other kinds of cyberfrauds. Lauding the success of fintechs, the Finance Minister said they have helped in speeding up financial inclusion, and taking the payment system to even the far-flung areas of the country. Speaking at the Digital Payments Awards 2025 Ceremony here, Sitharaman said it is important to ensure that startup companies come up with solutions so that people are not arrested at home digitally, or fly by night operators don't take away their money. Another major threat, she pointed out, is 'deep fake', which is causing a lot of damage to the public in large. "Today, we should take care of addressing them so we need a set of fintech companies which are constantly working to give solutions for the newer challenges which are arising," Sitharaman said. She also called upon the fin

Paytm stock crashes 10%, sharpest intra-day fall in 16 months; here's why

The Finance Ministry on Wednesday rejected reports suggesting that a fee would be imposed on UPI transactions, calling them "completely false, baseless, and misleading".

Cred's valuation slump signals caution for India's fintech companies

The sharp markdown despite backing from existing investors reflects growing investor caution and a broader recalibration in the Indian fintech and credit-led ecosystem

Fintech major PhonePe appoints new board member as it prepares for IPO

PhonePe is the largest player on India's real-time payments system Unified Payments Interface (UPI). It reversed its listing from Singapore to India in 2022

Bengaluru-based Stable Money secures $20 million in series B funding

The Bengaluru-based company secured the latest round of funding from Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum Partnership, Aditya Birla Ventures and participation from all the existing investors

Fintech tools to transform medium enterprises into growth engines: NITI

A report published by NITI Aayog says that the MSME sector contributes 29% to the GDP, adding 40% to the export and employing 60% of the workforce

Razorpay, MeitY Startup Hub partner to boost India's deep-tech startups

Initiative aims to support early-stage ventures with fintech tools, mentorship and infrastructure - especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities

Q4 results: MobiKwik suffers Rs 56.03 cr loss, ops revenue up marginally

For the full FY25, the Gurugram-based company recorded a loss of Rs 121.5 crore

Fintechs push AI, new protocol to simplify backend tools for merchants

Cashfree and Razorpay use AI agents and a new protocol to simplify backend systems and automate payments, easing merchant operations across fintech platforms

China's Ant Group to sell 4% stake in Paytm for $242 million: Report

Ant, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, will sell its stake in Paytm at ₹809.75 per share, the report added

Fintech-focused VC firm QED Investors eyes India in $300 mn Asia push

After investing around $200 million in India since 2020, the VC firm is pushing deeper into Asia-now operating in Indonesia, Japan, and Singapore, and setting its sights on South Korea and Australia

Swiggy tanks 6% on heavy volume, nears record low; Key reasons for fall

FPIs' stake in Swiggy declined to 4.9% in the March 2025 quarter from 6.2% at the end of December 2024 quarter, shows the shareholding data.

PhonePe's Pincode app starts 24x7 medicine delivery in three cities

Pincode app is transforming the online pharmacy sector through exclusive partnerships with local medical shops, rather than utilising dark stores

Vijay Shekhar Sharma surrenders 2.1 cr Paytm ESOPs worth Rs 1,800 cr

Fintech firm One97 Communications' Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma has voluntarily surrendered 2.1 crore shares worth about Rs 1,800 crore, as per a regulatory filing and share closing price of the company. The shares were granted to Sharma as part of ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) at the time of listing of One97 Communications, which owns Paytm brand. It will now return to the ESOP pool under One 97 Employees' Stock Option Scheme, 2019. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Chairman, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company vide letter dated April 16, 2025 has informed the company that he has voluntarily forgone all 2,10,00,000 (Two Crore Ten Lakhs) ESOPs granted to him under One 97 Employees Stock Option Scheme, 2019, with immediate effect," the filing said. Based on the Paytm share closing price of Rs 864.5 apiece, the ESOPs are valued at Rs 1,815.45 crore. "This will result in a one-time, non-cash, acceleration of ESOP expense of R

AI agents, new ally for CFOs to bolster finance automation: Xalts COO

As Indian companies evolve into global entities with increasingly complex finance operations, AI-powered intelligent solutions are driving measurable outcomes, turbo-charging speed, insights and efficiency that CFOs urgently need, says Supreet Kaur, chief operating officer at Singapore-based fintech platform Xalts. The platform has assisted clients in shortening trade finance cycles by as much as 10 days, and providing headcount efficiency of 30-40 per cent, all without replacing core systems, she told PTI. In her view, the next phase of finance transformation won't be driven by generic automation but by vertical AI agent platforms that solve real operational challenges. It will free CFOs to focus on decision-making, not data wrangling, she said. Given the multi-jurisdictional mandate of corporate finance teams in today's globalised world, handling of intricate banking relationships, payments, liquidity, compliances, and many other complex finance and treasury tasks can no longer re