India's Payments Giants Pivot to Lending, Insurance and Wealth to Escape Thin UPI Margins
Paytm, PhonePe, Razorpay, BharatPe and MobiKwik are expanding beyond zero-MDR payments into lending, insurance, broking and wealth management, monetizing merchant and consumer transaction data. With over 18 billion UPI transactions a month, the sector eyes FY26 for its first full-year net profit.
India's large payments firms—Paytm, PhonePe, Razorpay, BharatPe, MobiKwik—are diversifying into lending, insurance, broking and wealth management to chase profitability as UPI's zero-MDR and thin payment margins pressure core revenues, leveraging merchant and consumer transaction data.
Why this matters
Paytm's move into higher-margin financial services follows its post-IPO scrutiny after the Rs 18,300 crore listing stumbled, and its push to open about 50,000 retail outlets to deepen merchant reach.
Retail-company signals are accelerating, up +655300% QoQ.