Fintech Deep Dive — Tuesday | August 11, 2026

Buzz & Funding: The Week Indian Fintech Found Its Revenue Mojo

This week was a watershed moment for Indian fintech capital. Between August 3 and August 8, the ecosystem saw a surge of funding rounds, strategic acquisitions, and — most consequentially — a parliamentary amendment that could fundamentally reshape how payment companies make money. From MDR’s return to insurtech mega-rounds, here are the stories that mattered.

1. Parliament Amends Zero-MDR Law — The Biggest Fintech Policy Shift Since 2020

In what is arguably the most significant regulatory development for Indian payments in six years, the Lok Sabha on August 4 passed an amendment to the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, replacing the blanket prohibition on Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) with a framework allowing the Central Government to notify fees on specific electronic payment categories by executive order.¹²

The amendment modifies Section 10A — the provision that had enforced zero-MDR on UPI and RuPay debit card transactions since January 2020. The bill does not impose fees immediately. Instead, it creates the legal scaffolding for a targeted MDR, which the government can activate without returning to Parliament.

Why this matters: The payments ecosystem — fintechs and banks combined — spends an estimated ₹10,000–12,000 crore annually to power UPI transactions. The government provides roughly ₹2,000 crore in incentives. The remaining ₹8,000–10,000 crore is absorbed as a loss leader.³ RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra stated plainly on August 5: “Someone would have to pay the costs for maintaining and growing the digital payments infrastructure.”⁴

IPO implications are massive. The ToI report flagged PhonePe, Razorpay, PayU, PayNearby, and Innoviti as direct beneficiaries. PhonePe paused its listing in March 2026 citing market volatility — but an MDR framework materially improves the revenue defensibility of its core payments business. Razorpay, which processes over $150 billion in annual TPV, would gain a revenue line that has been structurally absent. Even smaller players like Innoviti (merchant POS terminals) could see margin expansion.

Consumer protection guardrails: The Payments Council of India (PCI) was quick to clarify that UPI payments will remain free for consumers. PhonePe, Razorpay, and Pine Labs backed a merchant-only MDR framework, arguing it is necessary to fund investments in payments infrastructure, security, and innovation.⁴ The NPCI’s UPI and Services Steering Committee will decide the specific rates after the Bill receives Parliamentary passage.

The mooted rate structure — approximately 0.3–0.5% on merchant transactions above ₹2,000, only for merchants with turnover above ₹1.5 crore — sounds modest. But on UPI’s scale (23.6 billion transactions worth ₹29.9 trillion in July alone), even a fraction of a percent translates to billions in annual revenue.

2. InRisk Labs Raises $27 Million Series A — India’s Insurtech Goes Parametric

Ahmedabad-based insurtech startup InRisk Labs closed a $27 million Series A round on August 5, co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Northpoint Capital.⁵⁶ The round values the group at approximately $70 million, according to co-founder Siddesh Ramasubramanian — a notable valuation for a two-year-old company playing in reinsurance rather than pure SaaS.

What makes this round significant:

• Regulatory milestone: Alongside the fundraise, InRisk Labs’ subsidiary EarthRe Insurance IFSC secured a reinsurance licence from the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) at GIFT City. This is a big deal — India has historically relied on foreign reinsurers (Swiss Re, Munich Re, Lloyd’s) for capacity. Building indigenous reinsurance underwriting is a stated policy priority, and EarthRe is positioning itself as the homegrown answer.

• Parametric insurance play: InRisk Labs uses AI-driven actuarial modelling and catastrophe models to offer parametric insurance products — policies that pay out automatically based on trigger events (earthquake magnitude, flood levels, crop yield data) rather than traditional claims assessment. This is particularly relevant for India’s climate-vulnerable agricultural and coastal regions.

• Capital deployment: The funds will strengthen underwriting capabilities, actuarial catastrophe modelling, and AI systems, while expanding into new non-life insurance segments and structured reinsurance products.

The round also attracted participation from Malay Kumar Poddar (CEO, EarthRe), who noted: “India will be the most consequential insurance market over the next two decades. To drive sustainable growth, we must build indigenous capacity.”⁶ Bessemer’s entry into Indian insurtech at this scale signals growing global VC conviction in India’s underpenetrated insurance market (premium penetration remains below 4% of GDP).

3. M2P Fintech Raises ₹100 Crore Venture Debt from Alteria Capital — AI Infrastructure Bet

Banking infrastructure provider M2P Fintech secured ₹100 crore ($12 million) in venture debt from Alteria Capital on August 6 — a three-year facility that marks the company’s second debt raise.⁷⁸

Where the money goes: Co-founder and CEO Madhusudanan R told ET that the capital will largely finance AI product development and computing capacity. This includes token consumption — the expense incurred when AI models process information. A small portion will refinance higher-cost debt raised in 2023.

M2P Fintech, which raised a $300 million Series D earlier this year, provides the full-stack payments infrastructure layer connecting banks, fintechs, and NBFCs — card issuance, digital lending rails, and core banking integrations. The company’s pivot toward AI-driven credit decisioning and fraud detection represents a natural evolution: as transaction volumes grow, the value shifts from moving money to intelligently routing and risk-scoring it.

The debt structure is strategic. Venture debt from Alteria (India’s largest venture debt fund) provides non-dilutive capital that preserves equity for a potential IPO — which M2P is widely expected to pursue, especially in a post-MDR world where payment infrastructure companies can demonstrate sustainable revenue models.

4. Mintoak Acquires ICC Loyalty — Building a Payments-to-Engagement OS

Mumbai-based Mintoak, a payments and banking engagement technology company, announced the acquisition of UAE-based ICC Loyalty on August 4, expanding beyond merchant payments into customer loyalty and rewards management.⁹¹⁰

Deal specifics:

• ICC Loyalty, headquartered in Dubai, serves over 30 leading banks and 11 million customers across 10+ countries, with clients including Emirates Islamic, Dubai Islamic Bank, and RAKBANK.
• The combined business generates over $30 million in annual revenue with profitability exceeding 30%.
• Post-acquisition, Mintoak partners with over 50 banks across 20+ countries — including HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, and SBI Payments in India.

CEO Raman Khanduja framed the strategic logic: “Payments have become the foundation of banking relationships. The next phase of growth will come from engagement.”¹⁰ The thesis is sound — banks acquire merchants for payments but retain them through loyalty programs, analytics, and cross-sell opportunities. By bundling payments acceptance with engagement tools, Mintoak is building what it calls a “Payments and Engagement OS” that serves both acquiring and issuing sides of a bank’s business.

This is an Indian fintech acquiring abroad — a reversal of the usual pattern where global companies acquire Indian startups. Mintoak’s expansion into the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe through this deal signals the maturation of India-born payment technology for global deployment.

5. GetVantage Bags $6.6 Million Series A + Debt — Revenue-Based Financing Gains Traction

Revenue-based financing (RBF) platform GetVantage raised $6.6 million in a Series A round on August 4, led by Rajeev Ahuja (former RBL Bank MD), SanRaj Group, Chiratae Ventures, Varanium Fintech Fund, and VCMint.¹¹¹² The company also raised an additional conventional debt round.

GetVantage, founded by Bhavik Vasa and Amit Srivastava in 2020, offers non-dilutive growth capital to digital-first SMEs based on their revenue performance rather than collateral. The company holds an NBFC licence (via its arm GetGrowth Capital) — a regulatory asset that allows it to lend directly rather than purely acting as a loan service provider.

The RBF model is gaining traction in India as traditional bank lending remains inaccessible for many digital businesses. GetVantage has facilitated funding for over 500 businesses and was on track to hit ₹500 crore in annual disbursements. Its partnership with Myntra and Flipkart Commerce Cloud as a preferred embedded B2B fintech gives it a distribution moat within India’s largest e-commerce ecosystems.

Ahuja’s participation as a lead investor is notable — the former RBL Bank executive brings deep banking networks and lending expertise, which could help GetVantage navigate the regulatory complexities of direct lending at scale.

6. Other Notable Moves

• super.money launches SplitStore: Flipkart’s fintech arm launched an in-app marketplace allowing users to purchase products (6 million+ SKUs across electronics, fashion, furniture) in zero-interest instalments without a credit card. Delivery runs through Flipkart’s logistics network. This is a direct shot at the BNPL space — but instead of charging merchants or users, super.money leverages Flipkart’s supply chain economics to subsidise the instalment costs.¹³

• Times Network acquires OpiGo: The media conglomerate acquired the fintech SaaS startup for an undisclosed amount, integrating OpiGo’s stock-recommendation engine into ET NOW Pro, its premium subscription service for retail investors. OpiGo had raised only $168K in pre-seed funding in 2024. The deal signals media companies’ growing appetite for fintech capabilities as they monetise audience through advisory and subscription products.¹⁴

• July funding context: Indian fintech funding totaled $124.4 million across 8 deals in July 2026, per ETBFSI/1Lattice data — a sharp decline from June’s $935.5 million (inflated by CRED’s $900 million round). The largest July deals were Veriqus ($40.1M from Norwest and Peak XV), BusinessNext ($40M from ServiceNow), and Neo Group ($36.3M from Peak XV).¹⁵

The Big Picture

This week crystallised two converging trends in Indian fintech. First, the revenue question is being answered — the MDR amendment creates a path for payment companies to earn what they process, while companies like Mintoak and GetVantage are building engagement and financing layers that monetise beyond the transaction. Second, capital is flowing into specialised niches — parametric insurtech (InRisk Labs), revenue-based financing (GetVantage), and AI infrastructure (M2P) rather than generic “fintech” plays.

The IPO pipeline is the quiet backdrop to all of this. PhonePe, Razorpay, M2P, and several others are circling public listings. A functioning MDR framework doesn’t just improve unit economics — it gives these companies a defensible revenue narrative that institutional IPO investors have been demanding since 2022.

For consumers, the immediate impact is nil — UPI remains free at the point of use. But the structures being built this week will determine whether India’s payments ecosystem remains a sustainable, competitive market or consolidates further into the PhonePe-Google Pay duopoly that has worried regulators for years.