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.

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