The India FinTech Diaries

Hosted by Hemant Kshirsagar & Elroy Serrao

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101

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May 2026

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About the show

India Fintech Diaries is a bi-weekly (ish) podcast that peeks at the fast, “wild-west” world of Fintechs in India. The world’s most populous democracy is at the cusp of massive technological and demographic change that will forever change the way we relate to financial services and their providers. In each episode, your hosts Hemant Kshirsagar and Elroy Serrao, demystify the world of Fintech for you by exploring ideas, innovations, startups and the personalities that are shaping India’s Fintech Landscape. Join them for a wild ride into the world of Indian Fintech!!!

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60 recent

May 18, 2026Episode 8841 min

EP088 - In conversation with Anand Balaji, CEO & Co-Founder, XFlow

Despite instant UPI payments, real-time notifications, and API-first financial infrastructure becoming normal in India, cross-border payments remain surprisingly broken for many exporters and global-first businesses.In this episode of India FinTech Diaries, we sit down with Anand Balaji, CEO & Co-founder of Xflow, to unpack why international money movement is still plagued by opacity, delays, compliance friction, and fragmented infrastructure.Anand takes us deep into the architecture of modern cross-border payments—from SWIFT and correspondent banking to compliance engines, FX intelligence, and programmable treasury infrastructure.The core argument is simple but powerful:Cross-border payments were designed for access, not experience.And that’s now becoming a major bottleneck for India’s global-first businesses.Key Themes from the Episode🌍 Cross-Border Payments Are Still a Black Box Exporters still struggle with unpredictable settlement times, opaque FX conversion, missing SWIFT messages, and endless compliance workflows.🏗️ SWIFT Solved Access — Not Experience SWIFT was revolutionary for the 1960s, but it was never designed for real-time visibility, transparency, predictable settlement, or modern UX expectations.⚡ Domestic Payments Have Changed User Expectations UPI has fundamentally changed how businesses think about payments. Exporters now expect cross-border flows to feel as seamless as domestic transfers.🧠 Compliance is the Real Infrastructure Layer The biggest bottleneck is no longer money movement itself—it’s AML, KYC, transaction monitoring, and regulatory orchestration at scale.💱 FX Optimization is Becoming Intelligent Xflow is using AI-driven forecasting and programmable FX workflows to help businesses optimize conversion timing rather than just negotiate rates.🔌 Cross-Border Payments is Becoming API Infrastructure Platforms are increasingly embedding payments natively into workflows, much like Shopify Payments runs on Stripe infrastructure.🪙 Stablecoins Are Moving From Theory to Usage While businesses may not yet hold stablecoins as treasury assets, exporters are increasingly seeing demand from global customers who want to pay using them.🔮 The Endgame: Cross-Border Payments That Feel Like UPI The ultimate goal is simple: international payments that are instant, predictable, trackable, and invisible in complexity.Listen in to understand how Fintech is rebooting cross-border payments !!Connect with XFlowWebsite: https://www.xflowpay.com/X: https://x.com/xflowpayLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xflowpay/

April 14, 2026Episode 8729 min

EP087 - In conversation with Vineet Agrawal, Co-Founder, Jiraaf

In this episode of India FinTech Diaries, we explore a quietly emerging shift in India’s investment landscape: the rise of fixed income as a retail asset class.While equities and mutual funds have become mainstream, fixed income—despite offering predictable returns and portfolio stability—has remained largely inaccessible to individual investors.To unpack this, we speak with Vineet Agarwal, Co-founder of Jiraaf, a platform focused on democratizing access to fixed income investments.The core idea is simple but powerful: enable retail investors to do what institutions and family offices have been doing for decades—invest meaningfully in fixed income products.Contact JiraafWebsite: https://www.jiraaf.com/X: https://x.com/Jiraaf_OfficialLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jiraafofficial/

March 27, 2026Episode 8641 min

EP086 - In conversation with Ananth Shroff, Founder and CEO, DPDzero

In this episode of India FinTech Diaries, we dive into one of the most under-discussed—but critical—layers of the lending stack: debt collections.As digital lending in India scales rapidly, especially in unsecured credit, the stress is increasingly showing up not in underwriting—but in collections. Traditional systems, built for a low-volume, high-touch world, are now struggling to keep up with instant disbursals and millions of borrowers.To unpack this shift, we speak with Ananth Shroff, Co-founder & CEO of DPDzero, who is reimagining collections as a full-stack, AI-driven infrastructure problem rather than an operational afterthought.Key Themes from the Episode⚡ Lending Has Evolved. Collections Haven’t Loans are now disbursed in seconds—but collections infra is still built for a physical, slow, agency-led world. This mismatch is becoming a bottleneck for growth.🧩 Collections is Still Treated as an Afterthought Despite being core to unit economics, collections is often the “stepchild” of lending—underinvested, fragmented, and operationally inefficient.📉 Unsecured Lending = Rising Stress Signals As digital lending scales, delinquencies are increasingly concentrated in unsecured portfolios—making collections infra mission-critical.🤖 AI + Orchestration > Channels in Silos SMS, WhatsApp, calls, field visits—all exist today, but operate independently. The real unlock is intelligent orchestration across channels, not just adding more touchpoints.🧠 Persona-Based Collections is the Breakthrough Not all defaulters are the same. From supportive to intentional, identifying borrower intent using AI enables better recovery and better borrower experience.⚖️ Compliance + Empathy is the New Standard With RBI tightening norms and social media amplifying borrower voices, collections must balance recovery with dignity and transparency.🔮 The Future: Full-Stack, Intelligence-Driven Collections The next generation of collections platforms will combine AI, operations, compliance, and legal workflows into a single integrated stack.Tune in to understand how to rebuild collections for the digital lending era !!Contact DPDzeroWebsite: https://dpdzero.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dpdzero/X: https://x.com/dpdzero

January 10, 2026Episode 8540 min

EP085 - In conversation with Venkat Srinivasan, Chief Analytics and Risk Officer at Bureau

In this episode of India FinTech Diaries, we unpack one of the most urgent challenges facing digital finance today: fraud at scale. With cybercrime cases in India crossing 36 lakh in 2024 and losses exceeding ₹22,000 crore, fraud is no longer an edge case—it’s a systemic risk.To decode how fraud has evolved and what institutions must do next, we speak with Venkat Srinivasan, Chief Analytics and Risk Officer at Bureau.Venkat explains why modern fraud is no longer about fake documents or isolated bad actors. Instead, it’s coordinated, networked, and industrialized—powered by mule accounts, device spoofing, identity rotation, and real-time information sharing.Key Highlights:🕸️ Fraud has become organizedWhat once looked like individual theft now resembles syndicates operating across banks, fintechs, and marketplaces simultaneously.🧩Siloed risk systems are breaking downKYC, fraud monitoring, AML, and device intelligence working in isolation miss the bigger picture. Unified risk decisioning is now essential.📱 Devices are the new identity layerFrom fingerprinting to behavioral biometrics, the device has become a powerful signal—often more reliable than static identity documents.🧠 Graph-based models are the futureBureau’s use of graph data structures helps uncover hidden networks and patterns that linear rules and traditional models simply cannot detect.⚖️ Compliance is a guardrail, not a blockerVenkat makes a strong case for internalizing regulation as a design constraint that enables sustainable innovation, rather than treating it as a checkbox.This episode is a must-listen for fintech founders, risk leaders, product teams, and policymakers grappling with the trade-offs between growth, friction, privacy, and trust.Website: https://bureau.id/

October 4, 2025Episode 8436 min

EP084 - WealthTech - In conversation with Amit Majumdar, Group Strategy Officer, Angel One

In this episode of India FinTech Diaries, we sit down with Amit Majumdar, Group Strategy Officer, Angel One, one of India’s fastest-growing WealthTech platforms. Trusted by over 3Cr clients, Angel One is blending cutting-edge tech with deep market insights to make wealth creation accessible to everyone.Key Highlights:📊 Democratizing WealthTech: Angel One’s focus on taking investing beyond metros to Tier 2/3 cities.🤖 Tech at the Core: From AI-driven personalization to advanced analytics, technology is powering customer journeys and financial literacy.🌐 Beyond Brokerage: Moving from being a discount broker to a full-fledged WealthTech ecosystem offering investing, advisory, and more.🚀 Future Roadmap: Expansion into new segments, products, and personalized services to empower India’s growing investor base.Tune in to hear how Angel One is redefining financial inclusion and wealth creation at scale.

September 5, 2025Episode 8312 min

EP083 - Crypto - GENIUS Act vs Payment Banks: Lessons in Safety, Scale & Regulation

In this episode of India FinTech Diaries, we draw fascinating parallels between India’s Payment Banks experiment and the US’s GENIUS Act, designed to regulate stablecoin issuers.Both initiatives aim to create safe, inclusive financial systems—but as we explore, they also share similar scaling challenges that can make or break their success.Key Highlights:🏦 Payment Banks 101: Why they were launched, their business model, and why many never scaled beyond pilots.💸 GENIUS Act Deep Dive: Full-reserve requirements, monthly attestations, consumer protection norms, and how it hopes to make stablecoins safe.🔗 Surprising Parallels: Both aim to build trust first, exclude risky behaviors, and onboard underserved users—but struggle with monetization and scale.⚖️ Safety vs Viability: The big lesson—designing for safety is not enough; the model must also be commercially sustainable to scale.🌐 Why It Matters: Stablecoin regulation will shape cross-border rails, remittances, and even CBDC interoperability. Getting it wrong could cede ground to unregulated players.Tune in to understand how Payment Banks mirror Stablecoins in the GENIUS ACT

July 11, 2025Episode 8254 min

EP082 - Lending - In conversation with Shweta Pandey, Co-founder and CEO, ARTH

In this inspiring episode of India FinTech Diaries, we sit down with Shweta Pandey, co-founder and CEO of ARTH, to explore how inclusive fintech is being built—one village, one woman entrepreneur at a time.ARTH isn’t just a lender; it’s a phygital platform blending digital convenience with on-ground trust, designed specifically to support women-led nano and micro businesses across India. Shweta shares deep insights into the unique design principles behind ARTH’s credit products, the structural bias in lending, and how credit must be paired with capacity building and empathy—especially in Bharat’s context.Key Highlights:👩‍🌾 Designing for Women: ARTH’s products are built not just around financial needs but women’s financial lives, respecting family dynamics, resilience, and informal savings behaviors.📲 Phygital by Design: ARTH combines digital tech with a powerful on-ground presence—local business centers and community "Mitra" volunteers—to foster trust and understanding.💳 Credit + Payments = Trust: ARTH bundles loans with payment solutions like soundboxes and QR codes, enabling flexible repayment and improving data visibility.❤️ Failure is Part of the Journey: Through its Sahyog Program, ARTH supports customers who've faced genuine business failure—offering diagnostics, counseling, and pathways to return as formal borrowers.🌱 What’s Next: With plans to expand into solar loans and reach 10 million households by 2030, ARTH is redefining what responsible, gender-intentional fintech can look like.Tune in to understand how ARTH is pioneering inclusive and impactful finance.Contact ARTHWebsite: https://arthimpact.in/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arthimpact1/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmEFbMAO_4vcx71wE36fpkA

May 31, 2025Episode 8136 min

EP081 - Stablecoins - In conversation with CA Aishwary Gupta, Global Head of Payments - Polygon Labs

In this future-forward episode of India FinTech Diaries, we sit down with Aishwary Gupta, Global Head of Payments at Polygon Labs, to unpack what comes after UPI. With stablecoin legislation gaining traction globally and Web3 infrastructure maturing rapidly, this episode explores what India’s next-generation payment rails could look like in a programmable, tokenized future.Here’s what you’ll learn: 🪙 The role of stablecoins & CBDCs ⚙️ Why UPI needs a programmable upgrade 🤖 Agentic commerce & AI-powered banking 🌍 How Polygon is scaling payments globallyContact Polygon LabsAishwary on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aishwary1992/Aishwary on X: https://x.com/0xAishwaryPolygon Labs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/polygonlabs/Polygon Labs on X: https://x.com/0xPolygonWebsite: https://polygon.technology/

May 18, 2025Episode 8041 min

EP080 - Cross-Border Payments - In conversation with Sanjay Tripathy, Co-founder & CEO, BRISKPE

In this episode of India FinTech Diaries, we sit down with Sanjay Tripathy, Co-Founder & CEO of BRISKPE, to explore how they’re solving one of the most complex challenges faced by Indian MSMEs—cross-border B2B payments. From opaque processes and costly fees to regulatory hurdles, cross-border trade remains a daunting space for exporters and service providers alike.Sanjay shares the BRISKPE origin story, their mobile-first approach, and how the team is building a future-ready, regulation-first cross-border platform trusted by MSMEs across India.Key Highlights:🌍 Solving the Real Pain: Problems faced by the goods export segment—a sector often ignored by fintechs despite making up nearly 50% of India’s export base.📲 Mobile-First Platform: Why offering MSMEs a “Google Pay-like” experience is today’s need📜 Compliance and Regulations: From real-time e-FIRA generation to e-BRC and IDPMS workflows, looking at how compliance can be digitized.🌐 The Vision Ahead: From being listed as an official payment provider on Amazon to targeting Southeast Asia expansion, BriskPe is positioning itself as the go-to partner for growing India’s digital trade ecosystem.Tune in to this insightful episode to understand how BRISKPE is digitizing cross-border payments for Indian SMEs.Contact BRISKPESanjay’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tripathysanjay/BRISKPE’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/briskpe/X: https://x.com/BriskPeWebsite: https://www.briskpe.com/

March 14, 2025Episode 7939 min

EP079 - InsurTech - In conversation with Anand Prabhudesai, Co-founder, Turtlemint

In this episode of India FinTech Diaries, we dive into the transformation of insurance distribution with Anand Prabhudesai, co-founder of Turtlemint. Anand shares how Turtlemint is breaking down the complexities of insurance, making it accessible for millions across India through technology and a vast agent network. From revolutionizing how insurance is sold to training a new generation of financial advisors, Turtlemint has been at the forefront of India's insurtech revolution.Key Highlights:💡 Simplifying Insurance: Turtlemint empowers agents with tools and training to make insurance easier for customers, especially in remote areas.🚀 The Power of Technology: Learn how Turtlemint’s platform provides comparisons, digital journeys, and seamless integrations to empower agents and customers.🌍 Growth and Milestones: With over 4 lakh agents in 18,000+ pin codes, Turtlemint has made insurance more accessible than ever, benefiting millions across the country.Tune in to learn how Turtlemint is reshaping the insurance landscape and making financial security a reality for many.Contact TurtlemintAnand’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandprabhudesai/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/turtlemint/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/turtlemint.insurance/ X: https://x.com/helloturtlemint Website: https://www.turtlemint.com/