2 weeks ago
India's Payments Sector Attracts $5.8 Billion Funding Since 2021
India has a special way to pay using a phone called UPI.
It lets people send and receive money very quickly, almost like magic.
A new report from a company called Tracxn looked at companies that make payment apps in India.
Since 2021, these companies have raised almost $5.8 billion from investors.
That is a really huge amount of money!
Most of the money went to apps that help regular people pay for things.
Some money went to apps that help businesses handle payments.
A few years ago, money was flowing into these companies very fast, then it slowed down a little.
Now some of these companies are growing up and selling shares to the public.
UPI is also being used in more than a dozen countries around the world.
India's payments sector attracted nearly $5.8 billion in funding across 371 disclosed equity rounds since 2021, according to a Tracxn report.
Consumer-focused payment platforms received about 53% of total funding (approximately $3.1 billion), while business payments firms got 38%.
Payment infrastructure and API-based enablers accounted for the remaining 9% of funding, roughly $526 million.
The sector produced eight IPOs and 25 acquisitions since 2021, with funding peaking during the 2021 tech investment boom before slowing from 2022 to 2024.
Cross-border UPI transactions grew more than twenty-fold from about 37,000 in FY24 to over 7.5 lakh in FY25, with UPI now operational in more than a dozen countries.
- Who
- Tracxn, a market intelligence platform, published the report on India's payments sector, whose growth was driven by the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
- What
- India's payments sector attracted nearly $5.8 billion in funding across 371 disclosed equity rounds since 2021.
- Where
- India, with UPI's international expansion now covering more than a dozen countries.
- When
- Since January 2021; the report was released on Thursday.
- Why
- UPI's free public digital payments infrastructure helped seed and scale a private ecosystem of consumer apps, business platforms and fintech infrastructure providers.
Key facts
- Total funding since 2021
- Nearly $5.8 billion
- Disclosed equity rounds
- 371
- Consumer payment platforms share
- ~53% (approx. $3.1 billion)
- Business payments share
- ~38%
- Infrastructure and API enablers share
- ~9% (approx. $526 million)
- IPOs since 2021
- 8
- Acquisitions since 2021
- 25
- Cross-border UPI transactions growth
- From ~37,000 in FY24 to over 7.5 lakh in FY25 (more than twenty-fold)
Quotes
Tracxn report
Market‑intelligence platform Tracxn
“Payments companies have raised $5.8 billion across 371 disclosed equity rounds since January 2021, produced eight IPOs and 25 acquisitions, and begun consolidating around a handful of well‑funded companies.”
thehansindia.com
Sources
Related news
UPI Turns Ten With 13,000-Fold Growth, Global Expansion
UPI Turns India’s Payment Experiment Into Global Infrastructure
UPI at 10: India's biggest payments system faces fee challenge
UPI at Ten: India’s Payment Rail Enters Next Decade
Modi Marks UPI’s Decade as India’s Digital Payments Turning Point
UPI Reaches Decade Milestone as India’s Digital Payments Backbone
UPI Accepted in 11 Countries, But Payments Vary
Axis Bank Adds Separate UPI Limits for Payment Categories
Credit Card Transactions Surge as Average Spending Falls in July
India Plans Agentic AI Payments Through Popular UPI Network
India’s Banking Summit Maps AI’s Responsible Financial Frontier
