Exploring India’s Fintech Revolution: Key Takeaways from Quona’s 2025 Fintech Trek

By Kristin Sadler

Last month, Quona Capital—in partnership with DEG—hosted our 2025 India Fintech Trek, bringing together 50+ Quona portfolio company founders, LPs, and investors from 17 countries. Over three days, we explored India’s thriving fintech ecosystem, focusing on financial inclusion, digital public infrastructure (DPI), embedded finance, AI, capital markets, and climate fintech.

With an NPS of 92, Quona’s 2025 Fintech Trek reinforced India’s leadership in fintech innovation, offering lessons for emerging markets worldwide.

“Quona’s India Fintech Trek provided a rare, immersive look into one of the world’s most dynamic fintech markets — an invaluable opportunity to learn, connect, and benchmark against a rapidly evolving ecosystem.” — Fintech Trek Participant

Here’s a quick overview of the Fintech Trek, with the full agenda linked here for reference.

Day 1: The Rise of Indian economy, its Fintech Ecosystem & Financial Inclusion

The first day of the Fintech Trek set the stage for understanding India’s fintech revolution, driven by strong economic growth, rapid digital adoption, and dynamic capital markets. The country has made remarkable progress in financial inclusion, with UPI, Aadhaar, and Account Aggregators transforming access to financial services. However, significant opportunities remain in product adoption and financial literacy, particularly in credit, insurance, and wealth management.

We closed the first day with a hands-on group cooking class — a fun way to experience India’s diverse palate!

Day 2: Market Immersion

The second day of the India Fintech Trek focused on immersion, giving participants an opportunity to witness impact and innovation in action. Small group exchanges allowed attendees to meet customers of portfolio companies NeoGrowth and Rupifi, visit Turno’s battery warehouse, and engage with the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH).

We capped off the market immersion day with a Bangalore fintech ecosystem event, inclusive of networking and a remarkable session with Siddharth Shetty on the founding of the India Stack & Account Aggregator, and the creation of Finternet, anchored around the central global themes of frictionless future and giving control of data back to the user.

Day 3: Key Themes Driving Fintech Innovation

On the final day of the India Fintech Trek, we explored key themes driving financial innovation in India. A series of panels featured businesses at the intersection of climate and finance, financial infrastructure, embedded finance, and global expansion in emerging markets.

After three packed days of sessions and group activities, we concluded with a small group reception, where participants had the chance to relax and reflect on their experiences.

“As a founder from another region, this event helped me regionalize my business strategy, compare benchmarks across markets, and gain fresh perspectives from global entrepreneurs and investors.” — Fintech Trek Participant

Key Takeaways from India’s Fintech Trek

Here’s what we learned across three days of sessions and immersion:

1. India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is Setting Global Benchmarks

• Aadhaar, UPI, and Account Aggregators have transformed financial access, reducing friction in onboarding, lending, and payments.
• The Finternet session highlighted the next frontier in developing global DPI to enable frictionless financial services, with fintechs leading the charge on simplifying user adoption and building trust.
• Other emerging markets are looking to replicate India’s DPI success, making it a model for global financial inclusion and innovation.

2. India Has Made Significant Strides in Financial Inclusion, but Usage Gaps Remain

• India has made remarkable progress on expanding account access, more than doubling account ownership from 2011 and eliminating the access gender gap. This was driven largely by government schemes like PMJDY, initiatives like the India Stack (Aadhaar, UPI), and fintech innovation.
• That said, access alone isn’t enough. As highlighted by 60 Decibels and Arya on our financial inclusion panel, trust, financial literacy, and product usability are key to increasing adoption of credit, insurance, banking, and wealth management tools. Activation and usage of accounts and digital payments remains a challenge, and we see fintechs as key players in driving adoption in India.

3. Capital Markets & Venture Investment are Thriving

• India’s $5T+ capital market is one of the world’s most dynamic, with record-high IPO activity and mature venture ecosystems.
• India is debunking the myth of foreign capital dependence, with strong domestic investor participation in public and private markets. As a result of this, several prominent Indian companies with listing aspirations are “reverse flipping” their domicile (from the US, Singapore etc) back to India.
• Fintech funding dipped post-2022 but is rebounding, particularly in lending and embedded finance — as monetization models mature.

4. AI is Supercharging Financial Services & Inclusion

• AI is transforming financial access — from alternative credit scoring to multi-language interfaces that improve fintech usability in rural and low-income segments.
• India’s unique data ecosystem — a mix of structured and alternative data — positions it as a leader in AI-driven fintech innovation.
• Cybersecurity and regulatory oversight will be critical as AI adoption scales in risk modeling, fraud detection, and digital lending.

5. Embedded Finance is Unlocking New Opportunities for MSMEs across Verticals

• MSMEs remain underserved by traditional banks, creating a massive opportunity for embedded credit models.
• Fintechs like Arya and Shivalik Bank are leveraging alternative credit data and partnerships to reach rural markets and first-time borrowers.
• Tokenization of assets (e.g., agricultural commodities) could revolutionize lending, creating new asset classes for financial inclusion.

6. The Intersection of Fintech and Climate is Creating a Large Opportunity

• India’s EV and renewable energy markets are booming, with fintech playing a pivotal role in financing adoption.
• Long-term capital and risk-based guarantees are essential for scaling EV financing and green lending models.
• The intersection of fintech and sustainability — through agri-fintech, and EV financing, for example — is creating high-growth, high-impact opportunities.

What’s Next?

“An excellent opportunity to understand how fintech innovation is shaping one of the world’s largest emerging markets — while building connections that extend far beyond the event. Being on the ground in India gave me a much deeper appreciation of the fintech ecosystem, the macro trends shaping financial inclusion, and the cross-border opportunities for our own business.” — Fintech Trek Participant

India’s fintech revolution is just getting started, and we’re excited for what’s ahead! 🚀

A huge thank you to our speakers, portfolio company founders, and fintech leaders who generously shared their time and insights with our Fintech Trek participants. Special thanks to our LPs and portfolio companies who traveled from the U.S., U.K., Singapore, The Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Kenya, Egypt, the U.A.E., Indonesia, Japan, and South Africa to spend three days with us in the heart of India’s fintech revolution.

Stay tuned for insights from some of these sessions in the coming weeks, and let us know if you’re interested in joining us for future market immersion trips!