India’s Fintech Power List: 50 Leaders to Watch in 2026 – Indian Startup Times

• Kushal Rastogi, Knight FinTech: Kushal Rastogi is building India’s most influential banking infrastructure platforms, powering co-lending, lending, and treasury operations for banks, NBFCs, and fintechs. A serial entrepreneur with deep quantitative finance expertise, he leads Knight FinTech’s 350+ strong team driving AI-led, data-backed decision systems. Today, over 85 financial institutions trust Knight FinTech, with ₹45,000+ crore in assets managed through its platforms.
  Knight FinTech is a full-stack banking technology company enabling scalable, cloud-first digital transformation for financial institutions.
  

• Raman Khanduja, Mintoak: Raman Khanduja leads Mintoak’s mission to transform merchant acquiring by enabling banks to monetize and deepen SME relationships beyond payments. Under his leadership, Mintoak has scaled to 4 million+ merchants across six countries, partnering with leading banks in India and globally. He focuses on building modular, API-first platforms that unlock new revenue streams for acquirers.
  Mintoak is a merchant SaaS platform empowering banks to deliver payments, commerce, and loyalty solutions to SMEs at scale.
  

• Manas Gond, Prosperr.io: Manas Gond is redefining payroll and employee financial wellness through AI-driven, compliance-first systems for modern employers. He leads Prosperr’s full-stack platform spanning dynamic payroll, benefits, tax planning, and salary-linked financial products. His work focuses on reducing operational friction while building long-term employee trust and financial security.
  Prosperr.io is an AI-powered payroll and benefits platform helping employers and employees manage compensation, taxes, and wealth seamlessly.

• Prateek Jindal, PowerUp Money: Prateek Jindal is on a mission to democratize quality mutual fund advisory for India’s retail investors. He leads PowerUp Money’s product and advisory strategy, serving over 3 lakh investors with data-driven insights, portfolio tools, and affordable wealth memberships. An active angel investor, he brings a strong founder-first perspective to financial services innovation.
  PowerUp Money is India’s trusted mutual fund advisory app helping investors make smarter, long-term wealth decisions.
  

• Ajay Lakhotia, StockGro: Prateek Jindal is on a mission to democratize quality mutual fund advisory for India’s retail investors. He leads PowerUp Money’s product and advisory strategy, serving over 3 lakh investors with data-driven insights, portfolio tools, and affordable wealth memberships. An active angel investor, he brings a strong founder-first perspective to financial services innovation.
  StockGro is a leading Indian social investment platform that blends community-driven learning, expert-backed insights, and virtual trading to help retail investors master stock market investing and strategy with real-time data and experiential tools.

• Rohit Mahajan, Plutos ONE: Rohit Mahajan is the Founder of Plutos ONE, where he is building one of India’s fastest-growing BBPS-enabled digital bill payment infrastructures. With over two decades across fintech, banking partnerships, and media-led growth, he has scaled large merchant aggregation ecosystems working with 40+ banks and networks including UPI, RuPay, and Mastercard. His leadership sits at the intersection of payments technology, distribution scale, and ecosystem adoption.
  Plutos ONE is India’s youngest licensed BBPS TSP, offering turnkey digital bill payment solutions to operating units nationwide.
  

• Aakash Bansal, Vijya Fintech: Aakash Bansal is the driving force behind Vijya Fintech’s mission to simplify India’s fragmented financial intermediary ecosystem through technology. As Founder, he leads product vision and platform architecture for MIDASX, a cloud-based, full-stack, multi-asset execution and reporting platform. His work focuses on connecting disconnected financial workflows into a unified, scalable system.
  Vijya Fintech builds open-architecture investment management technology for wealth managers, advisors, and financial intermediaries.
  

• Akshay Mehrotra, Fibe: Akshay Mehrotra leads Fibe’s transformation of consumer lending through a mobile-first, risk-led digital platform. He is responsible for product strategy, credit innovation, and building a scalable lending engine that combines speed with responsible underwriting. Under his leadership, Fibe has emerged as one of India’s most recognisable new-age lending brands.
  Fibe (formerly EarlySalary) is a Pune-based fintech redefining instant credit, pay-later, and digital lending experiences.
  

• Varun Bajpai, Neo Wealth and Asset Management: Varun Bajpai plays a key role in shaping Neo Group’s investment strategies across asset management and wealth platforms. As Senior Fund Manager, Angel Investor, and Investment Banker, he brings deep capital markets expertise, governance-led investing, and long-term wealth creation principles to client portfolios. His work focuses on sustainable, transparent, and value-accretive investing.
  Neo Wealth and Asset Management is a new-age platform offering unbiased, technology-driven wealth and asset solutions.
  

• Utsav Shah, Kaaj: Utsav Shah is reimagining small business lending through AI-native infrastructure at Kaaj. With nearly a decade at Uber and Cruise, he brings deep experience in scaling complex AI systems into financial services. At Kaaj, he leads product and AI strategy to reduce loan decision cycles from weeks to minutes.
  Kaaj is an agentic AI platform helping lenders and brokers accelerate SMB loan origination through decision-ready intelligence.
  

• Nagachethan S M, Navanc: An experienced banker and fintech builder, Nagachethan S M is redefining mortgage underwriting by blending traditional lending wisdom with new-age fintech innovation. As Founder & CEO of Navanc, he is building India’s first full-stack asset creditworthiness platform, enabling a fully digital mortgage journey at scale. An alumnus of IRMA and a Financial Inclusion Champion at CIIE.Co (IIMA), he is driving Navanc’s expansion across India and into ASEAN and African markets.
  Navanc is India’s first comprehensive mortgage underwriting and property creditworthiness platform.

• Tarun Bahri, The Policy Exchange: With over 27 years across banking and insurance, Tarun Bahri brings deep expertise in customer retention, digital transformation, and collections. As Co-Founder & CEO of The Policy Exchange, he is leading data-driven solutions to reduce policy lapses, improve persistence, and unlock sustainable revenue for insurers. His work sits at the intersection of commercial impact and financial inclusion, ensuring families remain protected during financial stress.
  The Policy Exchange is a next-gen insurtech platform focused on persistency, retention, and proactive revenue enhancement.

• Sandeep Garg, Blostem: A seasoned banker with deep experience across fintech, digital banking, trade finance, and retail banking, Sandeep Garg is building future-ready financial infrastructure. As Founder & CEO of Blostem, he is spearheading blockchain-based solutions to improve transparency, efficiency, and trust across the financial ecosystem. His leadership positions Blostem at the core of next-generation financial rails.
  Blostem is a blockchain-powered infrastructure platform for the modern financial ecosystem.
  

• Prashanth Swaminathan, Zynk: Prashanth Swaminathan is building Zynk’s global payments and settlement infrastructure, focused on solving cross-border payment friction for modern businesses. At Zynk, he drives product vision, global partnerships, and scalable compliance-ready architecture. His work is enabling faster, more reliable international money movement for enterprises operating across markets.
  Zynk makes global payments instant through next-gen settlement infrastructure.
  

• Jitendra Gupta, Jupiter Money: Jitendra Gupta is the founder of Jupiter and one of India’s most successful fintech entrepreneurs, with multiple category-defining exits behind him. From Citrus Pay’s $130M exit to building Lazypay and now Jupiter, he has consistently shaped consumer fintech at scale. At Jupiter, he leads product-first digital banking for India’s millennials, blending simplicity with financial intelligence.
  Jupiter is an all-in-one money app reimagining everyday banking for a digital-first generation.
  

• Prashant Pitti, Optimo Capital: Prashant Pitti leads Optimo Capital’s mission to digitize India’s Loan Against Property ecosystem for MSMEs. He oversees strategy, underwriting innovation, and nationwide expansion of India’s first digital LAP NBFC. Under his leadership, Optimo has scaled profitably across 50+ cities, dramatically reducing sanction and disbursal timelines.
  Optimo Capital is India’s first digital LAP platform unlocking asset-backed credit at speed.
  

• Taranjit Jaswal, CapitalXB Finance: Taranjit Jaswal is steering CapitalXB Finance at the intersection of supply-chain finance and structured credit. He focuses on building scalable lending solutions that strengthen enterprise and MSME supply chains. His leadership emphasizes risk-balanced innovation and capital efficiency across ecosystems.
  CapitalXB empowers supply chains with intelligent financing solutions.
  

• Sandeep Jawanjal, Berar Finance: Sandeep Jawanjal plays a key leadership role at Berar Finance, one of India’s oldest regional NBFCs. He focuses on operational expansion, credit growth, and customer-centric lending across vehicle finance, LAP, and personal loans. His work strengthens Berar’s deep penetration across Central and Western India.
  Berar Finance is a legacy NBFC delivering fast, flexible credit across Bharat.
  

• Sanchit Bansal, GoodScore: Sanchit Bansal leads GoodScore’s mission to democratize credit awareness and credit health in India. He drives product innovation, partnerships with credit bureaus, and large-scale financial education. Under his leadership, GoodScore has empowered over 5 million users to actively improve their credit profiles.
  GoodScore is India’s leading app for credit score tracking, education, and improvement.
  

• Sandeep Jethwani, Dezerv: Sandeep Jethwani is redefining wealth management for India’s new-age wealth creators through Dezerv. Drawing on nearly two decades of investment management experience, he leads portfolio strategy, advisory excellence, and long-term wealth creation frameworks. Dezerv today manages ₹10,000+ crore in client assets with a tech-enabled, advisor-led model.
  Dezerv is a tech-powered wealth management company built for serious long-term investors.

• Ravi Ravulaparthi, Qapita: Ravi Ravulaparthi brings deep global investment banking experience to Qapita’s equity ownership platform. He leads strategy, partnerships, and market expansion across Asia. His work enables startups and enterprises to manage cap tables, ESOPs, and liquidity with institutional-grade transparency.
  Qapita is a digital platform powering equity ownership and liquidity for modern companies 

• Jay Prakash Gupta, Raise Financial Services: Jay Prakash Gupta is the founder of Raise Financial Services, building a unified platform across investing, payments, insurance, and wealth. He drives product strategy rooted in data, behavioral finance, and user empowerment. His thought leadership actively shapes conversations around modern retail finance in India.
  Raise Financial Services is a smarter, integrated way to manage money across life stages.
  

• Arjun M., GrowXCD: Arjun M. leads GrowXCD Finance with a strong focus on MSME and low-income household credit access. He brings deep expertise in lending strategy, governance, and post-deal integration. His leadership strengthens capital access where traditional finance often falls short.
  GrowXCD Finance accelerates grassroots economic growth through inclusive capital access.
  

• Eklavya Gupta, Recur Club: Eklavya Gupta is building India’s leading non-dilutive debt marketplace for startups and SMEs at Recur Club. He oversees product-led growth, AI-driven underwriting, and capital advisory at scale. His work addresses India’s structural capital inefficiency for revenue-generating businesses.
  Recur Club is an AI-native debt infrastructure for fast, founder-friendly capital.
  

• KV Arangasamy, RUGR: KV Arangasamy is the founder of RUGR, an API-first fintech platform digitizing rural financial institutions. He leads product innovation, partnerships, and expansion across cooperatives and self-help groups in Bharat. His work bridges formal fintech infrastructure with grassroots banking realities.
  RUGR is an API-led banking infrastructure built for rural India’s financial backbone.
  

• Manthan Shah, Gullak: Manthan Shah is driving product and ecosystem growth at Gullak, leveraging his deep experience from India’s early UPI and payments infrastructure days. He focuses on secure, compliant, and intuitive digital gold savings solutions. His work simplifies alternative asset ownership for everyday Indians.
  Gullak makes gold savings simple, digital, and accessible.
  

• Utkrishta Kumar, Oolka: Utkrishta Kumar is a senior fintech leader with over 15 years of experience spanning business strategy, P&L ownership, product-led growth, and international expansion. At Oolka, he plays a key role in scaling an AI-first credit management platform focused on improving India’s credit behaviour ecosystem. His leadership bridges execution, technology, and consumer trust at scale.
  Oolka is India’s first AI-powered credit management partner helping users track, improve, and protect their credit health.
  

• Prakash Sikaria, Super.Money: Prakash Sikaria brings deep expertise across marketing, strategy, finance, and general management, with a sharp focus on building high-impact consumer fintech products. At super.money, he is driving the vision of rewards-led payments tailored for Gen Z and digital-first users. His work blends speed, engagement, and monetisation in everyday spending.
  Super.Money is a rewards-first UPI app turning daily payments into instant cashback, perks, and smart credit.
  

• Rajat Deshpande, FinBox: Rajat Deshpande is the Co-Founder & CEO of FinBox, where he leads the mission to democratise access to credit through robust fintech infrastructure. Under his leadership, FinBox has evolved from alternative credit scoring to a full-stack embedded finance platform. He brings deep experience across analytics, product, and financial services.
  FinBox enables lenders and platforms to offer seamless credit through data-driven underwriting and embedded finance APIs.

• Vivekanand Tripathi, Pelocal: Vivekanand Tripathi is focused on simplifying digital payments and customer interactions for hyperlocal merchants. At PeLocal, he leads product and merchant adoption efforts, helping small businesses automate collections and manage cash flows efficiently. His work empowers merchants with tech-led payment intelligence.
  PeLocal is a merchant-first platform enabling hassle-free digital payments, reminders, and revenue management.
  

• Bhupinder Singh, InCred Money: Bhupinder Singh is the Founder of InCred and the driving force behind building a diversified, technology-led financial services group. His leadership spans lending, wealth, capital markets, and fintech investments, with a strong focus on inclusive credit access. He has shaped InCred into a trusted new-age financial institution.
  InCred leverages data science and technology to make lending faster, simpler, and more inclusive across India.
  

• Vibhav Viswanathan, Pascal AI Labs: Vibhav Viswanathan is the Founder of Pascal AI Labs, where he is building an AI knowledge worker for public equity investors. With a background in investing, consulting, and enterprise AI, he leads product innovation at the intersection of data, intelligence, and capital markets. His work is redefining investment research workflows.
  Pascal AI Labs uses AI to transform unstructured financial data into actionable investment insights.

• Vaibhav Tambe, TransBnk: Vaibhav Tambe leads TransBnk with a vision to modernise transaction banking through embedded finance and SaaS. With deep expertise in payments and capital markets, he has driven strategic banking partnerships and cross-border collaboration. He is also an active angel investor in disruptive technologies.
  TransBnk offers Transaction Banking as a Service for corporate, commercial, and institutional clients.
  

• Vikrant Bhagwat, Altum Credo: Vikrant Bhagwat is a seasoned BFSI leader with over 28 years of experience in strategy, lending, and risk management. At Altum Credo, he plays a critical role in expanding access to home finance for underserved and first-time home buyers. His leadership focuses on sustainable growth and financial inclusion.
  Altum Credo Home Finance serves low- and middle-income segments with tailored housing finance solutions.

• Neeraj Bansal, CredRight: Neeraj Bansal brings strong expertise in corporate strategy, M&A, fintech, and credit modelling. At CredRight, he is helping channel institutional capital to micro and small entrepreneurs using tech-enabled ROSCA-based models. His work addresses India’s MSME credit gap at the grassroots level.
  CredRight is a digital lending platform empowering underserved micro-entrepreneurs with access to formal credit.

• Anup Agrawal, Kiwi: Anup Agrawal is Co-Founder of Kiwi, where he is driving India’s next phase of credit adoption by merging UPI with credit cards. With prior leadership roles at LazyPay and InCred, he brings deep expertise in lending, risk, and growth strategy. His focus is on scalable, inclusive credit products.
  Kiwi enables users to make UPI payments using virtual credit cards, making credit seamless and accessible.

• Yogi Sadana, Zype: Yogi Sadana is building Zype with a focus on simplifying financial access and digital-first consumer engagement. With experience across fintech operations and growth, he is focused on creating scalable, user-centric financial products. His work reflects a strong execution-driven mindset.
  Zype is a fintech platform focused on modern, accessible financial solutions for digital consumers.
  

• Ananth Shroff, DPDZero: Ananth Shroff is the Founder of DPDZero, driving a mission to prevent borrowers from falling into debt traps through ethical collections. Previously, he led GTM for bill payments at Setu, scaling to $1B GTV in under 18 months. His work combines fintech scale with borrower-first ethics.
  DPDZero focuses on responsible collections and early intervention in consumer credit.

• Jose Thattil, Phi Commerce: Jose Thattil is a veteran payments leader with over two decades of experience across cards, retail banking, and digital payments. At Phi Commerce, he has helped build one of India’s most trusted enterprise payment gateways, expanding into Southeast Asia. His leadership emphasizes scale, security, and reliability.
  Phi Commerce is an RBI-licensed, omnichannel payment solutions provider enabling secure, real-time transactions.
  

• Madhusudanan R, M2P Fintech: A veteran fintech entrepreneur with over a decade of experience, Madhusudanan R has been instrumental in building and scaling one of India’s largest banking infrastructure platforms. As Co-Founder, he has steered M2P’s expansion across 30+ markets, enabling banks and fintechs to launch at speed and scale. His leadership has positioned M2P as a critical backbone of modern financial services globally.
  M2P Fintech is a global API-led banking and payments infrastructure platform powering banks, NBFCs, and fintechs across geographies.
  

• Rohit Taneja, Decentro: Rohit Taneja is a product-first founder focused on simplifying complex banking infrastructure through culture-led execution. As Co-Founder, he has built Decentro into a high-impact API platform reducing integration time and capital costs for fintechs. Backed by Y Combinator, his long-term vision spans digital payments, blockchain, and sustainability-driven innovation.
  Decentro is an automated API platform enabling seamless banking integrations across India and APAC.
  

• Saurabh Jain, Stable Money: Saurabh Jain brings a rare founder mindset rooted in long-term thinking, trust, and positive asymmetry. At Stable Money, he focuses on building calm, predictable wealth solutions instead of chasing market hype. His leadership has helped reframe fixed-income investing as a habit-driven, transparent path to financial security.
  Stable Money is a fixed-income investment platform focused on FDs and bonds for safe, predictable wealth creation.
  

• Sucharita Mukherjee, Kaleidofin: Sucharita Mukherjee is a leading voice in financial inclusion, building systems that serve low-income and informal economy customers at scale. Through Kaleidofin, she has enabled access to credit, capital markets, and structured finance for over 4 million users across India, Bangladesh, and Kenya. Her work has been especially impactful in expanding finance for women entrepreneurs.
  Kaleidofin is a digital financial inclusion platform delivering tailored credit and finance solutions for underserved segments.
  

• Vimal Kumar, Juspay: Vimal Kumar has played a pivotal role in shaping India’s digital payments infrastructure with a deep focus on reliability and scale. At Juspay, he champions customer-obsessed product design while enabling billions of transactions securely. His leadership has helped Juspay earn trust across banks, merchants, and regulators.
  Juspay is a leading payments technology company powering high-scale, secure digital payment experiences.
  

• George Sam, Mindgate: With over two decades in BFSI, George Sam has led Mindgate’s evolution into a global real-time payments leader. He has driven strategy, growth, and investor alignment, including landmark partnerships with ACI Worldwide and PayU. His focus remains on sustainable scale through innovation and ecosystem partnerships.
  Mindgate Solutions is a global payments technology firm processing over 8 billion transactions monthly worldwide.
  

• Raghunandan G, Zolve: Raghunandan G is redefining cross-border financial access for global citizens. Through Zolve, he has enabled seamless banking, credit, and money movement for users relocating to the US. His work bridges financial inclusion gaps for ambitious professionals worldwide.
  Zolve is a cross-border fintech enabling instant access to US banking and credit products.

• Rajeev Agrawal, Innoviti: Rajeev Agrawal leads Innoviti’s vision of unlocking hidden value at the point of consumption through payments-led retail SaaS. Under his leadership, Innoviti has achieved deep penetration in enterprise offline retail with industry-leading GTV metrics. He continues to drive innovation at the intersection of data, payments, and commerce.
  Innoviti is a payments-centric retail SaaS platform powering India’s largest offline merchants.
  

• Kumar Abhishek, Tone Tag: Kumar Abhishek is pioneering sound-based data communication to redefine contactless payments. At ToneTag, he bridges deep-tech innovation with real-world usability, enabling secure mobile payments without additional hardware. His work is expanding digital payments to the last mile.
  ToneTag is a sound-based communication platform enabling contactless payments and engagement solutions.

• Akash Sinha, Cashfree: Akash Sinha has been central to building India’s most reliable bulk payouts and payment gateway infrastructure. Under his leadership, Cashfree supports high-scale businesses with instant, API-driven money movement. Backed by SBI and Y Combinator, he continues to scale mission-critical fintech rails.
  Cashfree is a leading payments and payouts platform powering instant money movement for internet businesses.

• Divya Dinesh Nandwana, Vakrangee Limited: Divya Nandwana contributes to Vakrangee’s vision of building India’s largest last-mile retail and fintech network. With a background in consulting and strategy, she supports large-scale expansion and operational standardization. Her work strengthens access to essential financial and digital services across Bharat.
  Vakrangee is a last-mile retail and fintech infrastructure company serving underserved India.

• Shashank Sharma, ScoreMe Solutions: Shashank Sharma is a digital lending specialist who has built ScoreMe from inception to scale, serving banks and NBFCs nationwide. He leads platform strategy, AI-driven credit analytics, and go-to-market execution. His work has redefined paperless, compliant, and intelligent lending workflows.
  ScoreMe Solutions is an AI-powered digital lending platform enabling smarter, faster credit decisions.
  

• Ramaswamy Iyer, Vayana Network: Ramaswamy Iyer is the Founder and CEO of Vayana Network, where he is building one of India’s most trusted digital trade and supply-chain finance platforms. He leads the company’s strategy, partnerships, and product innovation, enabling seamless access to working capital for corporates, MSMEs, and financial institutions. Under his leadership, Vayana has financed trade across 15+ industries and expanded operations to India and the US.
  Vayana Network enables end-to-end digital trade finance by connecting businesses and lenders to unlock faster, smarter credit.

As India’s fintech ecosystem matures, the leaders featured in India’s Fintech Power List: 50 Leaders to Watch in 2026 represent a decisive shift from rapid experimentation to institution-building at scale. Their work reflects a deeper focus on resilient infrastructure, responsible innovation, regulatory alignment, and technology-led trust—qualities that will define the next generation of financial services. Together, these leaders are not just responding to India’s evolving financial needs; they are actively shaping how capital, credit, and commerce will flow across the economy in the years ahead.

–Authored and edited by Sandhya Bharti

Disclaimer:

This feature is an independent editorial initiative curated by Indian Startup Times. The leaders featured in India’s Fintech Power List: 50 Leaders to Watch in 2026 have been shortlisted based on a combination of qualitative insights and quantitative indicators, including:

• Founder vision, leadership, and strategic influence
  
• Latest disclosed funding activity in 2025
  
• Reported valuation benchmarks (where publicly available)
  
• News Index / media visibility and industry relevance
  
• Fintech category and market focus
  
• Expansion plans and growth outlook
  

It is important to note that:

• This list is not exhaustive and does not include every notable fintech leader operating in India.
  
• The list is not a ranking, nor does it constitute financial, investment, or valuation advice.
  
• Inclusion is based on publicly available information, credible industry reports, media coverage, and editorial assessment at the time of compilation.
  
• Funding data, valuations, and expansion plans may evolve over time and are subject to change.
  
• Presence on this list does not imply endorsement, partnership, or commercial association by Indian Startup Times.
  

The objective of this editorial is to recognize leadership, innovation, and momentum within India’s fintech ecosystem, and to spotlight individuals shaping the sector’s trajectory as it moves into 2026.