With investors continuing to invest money into startups, new products entering the market and public-market activity picking up pace, August offered little sign of a slowdown in India’s startup ecosystem. But for fintech, the month provided a clearer picture of where the industry could be headed next.
UPI was at the centre of the conversation. The government’s move to create a framework that could allow merchant discount rates (MDR) on select UPI transactions revived a long-running debate over the sustainability of India’s free-to-consumer payments infrastructure. While the final framework is yet to emerge, the Payments Council of India has reiterated that consumers and small merchants will remain protected from any MDR.
At the same time, AI is becoming a more fundamental part of financial infrastructure. Razorpay’s launch of Vulcan, an AI foundation model trained on billions of payments, highlighted how fintech companies are looking to use AI for payment success, fraud detection and transaction intelligence.
August also showed strong investor interest in specialised fintech businesses. Wealthtech startup Centricity raised ₹280 Cr to expand its technology-led wealth distribution platform, while Navi secured $100 Mn from Prosus in its first institutional funding round. These deals put fintech among the key areas of investor activity in the broader startup ecosystem.
Against this backdrop, we bring you the fifth edition of “Five Fintech Startups To Watch”. This edition features startups working across some of fintech’s emerging segments, including wealthtech, investment management and fintech SaaS.
From building AI-led financial products to rethinking how businesses and consumers access financial services, these are the fintech startups that caught our attention in August.
Editor’s Note: The list below is not a ranking of any kind. Startups have been listed alphabetically.
CoverSure | Simplifying Insurance Tracking
Founded in 2023 by Saurabh Vijayvergia, Harshit Jain and Mayank Mishra, CoverSure is an IRDAI-licensed insurtech platform that aims to simplify insurance management through personalised policy analysis, coverage assessments and emergency assistance.
The platform acts as a digital vault for users’ health, life and motor insurance policies, bringing them together in a single portfolio. Users can access policy details, manage documents and share policies with family members or advisers.
CoverSure’s Coverage Calculator analyses a user’s existing policies to determine whether they are underinsured, over-insured or adequately covered. Its Know Your Policy feature simplifies complex policy language, helping users understand coverage, exclusions and benefits.
The feature is designed to help policyholders identify coverage gaps, avoid surprises during claims and make better use of benefits already available to them.
Through its Motor Club feature, the platform enables users to manage motor insurance, track challans and PUC status, and access SOS assistance during emergencies.
It also identifies insurance benefits bundled with credit and debit cards, helping users discover coverage they may already have but not know about.
CoverSure is targeting India’s expanding insurance market, projected to reach $867.89 Bn by 2034, growing at an 11% CAGR.
Fold Money | Be Aware Of Your Finances
For many, the ability to get better at managing one’s money, tracking exactly where funds are going or where to invest, often poses a continuous challenge. Managing finances across multiple bank accounts, credit cards, investments, loans and deposits can make it difficult to get a clear, consolidated view of one’s financial position.
Incorporated in June 2022, Fold Money is a Bengaluru-based personal finance platform that was started by the team behind Devfolio, including Akash Nimare, Nishant Verma and Utkarsh Verma.
Operating under the RBI’s account aggregator framework, Fold connects users’ financial accounts and organises their data. It automatically pulls and categorises transactions from linked bank accounts and credit cards.
Backed by Rainmatter and Razorpay, Fold operates in the Indian personal finance software market, estimated to reach $65 Mn in revenue by 2034.
While the startup earns revenue by selling subscriptions (up to ₹2,999 per year), it is moving beyond a pure personal-finance tracker to offer financial services.
Its current product roadmap includes credit cards, financial accounts and other services, creating opportunities to earn from transactions and financial products.
Komplai | AI-Powered Accounting Solutions For MSMEs
India’s 6.3 Cr MSMEs employ over 38.9 Cr people and contribute nearly 30% of GDP, yet many operate with lean finance teams and overstretched accountants. As compliance requirements multiply across GST, TDS, MCA and labour laws, founders are spending more time navigating paperwork and less time focused on growth.
For founders Anirudh Varma and Rishi Ayyalasomayajula, this offered a clear whitespace. Founded in 2024, Komplai is a Bengaluru-based AI-native accounting startup that combines AI automation with human accountants to streamline finance operations for growing businesses. The fintech SaaS startup automates bookkeeping, transaction categorisation, reconciliations, ledgers and compliance workflows through its AI system, Larry.
Its managed service adds human review, GST and TDS filings, ROC compliance, monthly MIS and financial reporting. Larry also answers finance questions in natural language, allowing founders and CFOs to query live accounting data rather than relying on spreadsheets.
Within four months of launch, Komplai has onboarded 15 customers, processed more than 3,500 documents and automatically categorised around 500 transactions. It also claims to have reduced customers’ book-closing time by roughly 90% compared with traditional manual accounting.
Komplai is targeting India’s accounting software and outsourced finance market, which is estimated to reach $1.50 Bn by 2034, growing at 8.83% annually. SMEs represented 65% of the market, making them a key addressable customer segment.
Tap Invest | Building A Fixed Income Investment Ecosystem For HNIs
For retail investors, the stock market often takes centre stage, with many focused on generating gains from a select set of high-value stocks. Fixed-income investments, however, have traditionally offered fewer options beyond bank deposits and conventional debt products.
Corporate debt and alternative fixed-income instruments can also be difficult for individual investors to access, with fragmented discovery, high minimum investment requirements and limited transparency. Tap Invest is targeting this gap by bringing a range of fixed-income opportunities onto a single digital platform.
Founded in 2022 by Nishchay Nath, Soumya Kushwaha and Himanshu Chowdhary, Tap Invest gives investors access to products such as asset leasing, invoice discounting, fixed deposits, pre-IPO opportunities and other debt instruments.
The startup operates a unified platform built around four products:
- Ultra: Offers institutional-grade debt investments for investors seeking stable returns and balanced risk beyond traditional FDs.
- Tap Partners: Provides APIs and integrations that allow advisors, platforms and institutions to offer debt products without building the infrastructure themselves.
- Tap Capital: Acts as the debt origination arm, sourcing and warehousing debt assets for the wider Tap Invest ecosystem.
- Bonds: Serves as a retail gateway to bonds and other debt products, with a focus on making bond investing more accessible to first-time investors. Tap Invest has partnered with the SEBI-registered online bonds platform, BondScanner, to simplify access to listed bonds.
Backed by Turbostart and Snow Leopard Ventures, Tap Invest is targeting India’s large fixed-income and corporate debt market, which recently crossed the ₹240 Lakh Cr mark. The startup claims to have more than 100K users who have invested over ₹1,500 Cr through its platform.
The Financialist | All Your Financial Needs Under One Roof
Managing personal finances often involves making separate decisions around investments, taxes, insurance, debt and succession, sometimes with different advisers or product distributors.
The Financialist is targeting consumers who want a single adviser to bring these decisions together around their broader financial goals.
Founded in 2021 by Priyank Shah and Vatsal Majithia, the startup offers bespoke financial advice covering multiple aspects of personal finance for a fixed fee.
Its services include investment planning, goal-based financial planning, taxation, insurance, liability management, and succession planning.
The platform takes a four-step approach to provide concise and relevant recommendations. It starts by understanding a customer’s personal goals, timelines and risk appetite. It then assesses their existing investments and identifies underperforming funds that may need to be exited.
Based on the customer’s goals, the platform then creates a customised financial roadmap covering investments, retirement planning and key life milestones.
The company received its SEBI RIA registration in June 2023, allowing it to provide regulated investment advice.
The Financialist operates in India’s wealth management market, which is expected to reach $286.91 Bn by 2030, growing at a 10.96% CAGR. The market spans investment management, financial advice, portfolio management and related services for affluent individuals.
Edited by Shishir Parasher
With inputs from Venu Rathore
Creatives by Abhyam Gusai
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