Fintech / embedded finance
Investors backing payments, lending, insurance, wealth, and finance embedded into products.
What this thesis means
Fintech investors in India underwrite companies that move, lend, insure, or manage money, and increasingly products that embed finance into commerce, SaaS, and consumer workflows. UPI rails, account aggregators, and digital KYC have lowered distribution friction; the bar now is unit economics, credit quality, compliance, and whether you own a real customer relationship.
These funds ask how you acquire and retain users cheaply, how risk is managed if you touch credit, and whether regulation is a moat or a landmine. Pure “fintech wrapper” stories struggle; products with proprietary distribution, data, or workflow lock-in do better.
Pitch with clear revenue model (take rate, interest, float, SaaS), loss ratios or repayment metrics if relevant, and a path to becoming infrastructure rather than a feature someone else can copy.
Who it fits
- Payments, lending, insurtech, wealthtech, and embedded-finance founders
- Teams building on India stack rails with a defensible wedge
- B2B finance products selling into SMEs, platforms, or banks
What to prepare
- Unit economics and risk metrics, not only growth charts
- Regulatory posture and licensing path
- Why your distribution or data is hard to replicate
Funds with this thesis
100Unicorns
Be the 'Y Combinator of India', provide initial capital plus committed follow-on to idea-stage startups, supporting them across their first three funding rounds before connecting them to large VCs for growth capital.
$250K – $3M12 Flags
Invest in founders from emerging countries building global businesses
$100K – $500K1818 Venture Capital
1818 Venture Capital backs exceptional early-stage founders building in India across SaaS, Consumer, FinTech, AI, and B2B, writing pre-seed and seed cheques in the $100k–$500k range as a micro VC with a strong India-first mandate.
$100K – $500K