india-fintechlisted

# India Fintech — playbook India fintech is a high-volume, low-margin, regulated environment. UPI moves ~10 billion transactions/month. The same product fails for entirely different reasons here vs the US/EU — different rails, different KYC tiers, different consent law (DPDP, not GDPR), different fraud patterns, different language coverage. ## 1. The rails — pick deliberately | Rail | Use case | Reality | |---|---|---| | UPI (NPCI) | P2P, P2M, recurring (UPI Autopay) | Free for users; revenue-thin for builders | | IMPS / NEFT / RTGS | Larger transfers, B2B | Slower, fee-bearing | | Bharat Bill Payment (BBPS) | Bill payments | NPCI's centralized layer | | Cards (NPCI RuPay + Visa/MC) | E-commerce, retail | Card tokenization mandatory (2022) | | AEPS (Aadhaar Enabled) | Last-mile rural | KYC via Aadhaar | | ONDC | Open commerce protocol | Newer; lighter regulatory frame | Default for most consumer fintech: **UPI as the primary rail.** Plan revenue around features other than transaction fees (UPI is free). ## 2. RBI regulatory frame — know your category | Category | What it does | License needed | |---|---|---| | Bank | Full banking | Bank license (rare for new entrants) | | NBFC | Lending, financing | NBFC registration | | Payment Aggregator (PA) | Collect payments on behalf of merchants | RBI PA license (since 2020) | | Payment Gateway (PG) | Tech provider, no merchant funds | Lighter, no PA license required | | PSO (Payment System Operator) | Operate a payment system |