March 26, 2026
India has evolved from a market of promise to a market of consequence
Six years ago, QED entered India with a conviction that it would become one of the most important markets in financial services over the long term. The scale was evident, the entrepreneurial energy was real and the financial system was still early in its evolution. What was less clear was how quickly and substantively the progress would follow.
Today, that conviction has been validated — and then some. India's GDP has reached $4.5 trillion, growing at 6.4 percent, with a young, urbanizing population of 1.48 billion. Monthly UPI transactions now exceed 22 billion. Aadhaar covers 1.4 billion citizens. The startup ecosystem has grown from roughly 5,000 startups and eight unicorns in 2015 to over 200,000 startups and 116 unicorns in 2025. Capital markets exceed $5 trillion in market capitalization. The foundations — physical, digital and financial — have deepened in ways that have fundamentally changed the conditions for building.
But India is not a single, uniform opportunity. It is a layered market where different customer cohorts carry very different economics, behaviors and needs. National averages, particularly around monetization and ARPU, can obscure more than they reveal. The best fintech companies here are built with a sharp understanding of which market layer they serve and why. And the most enduring ones pair ambition with regulatory fluency, operating rigor and thoughtful product design.
Over these six years, QED has built a focused portfolio of eight Indian companies, a strong founder network and a growing conviction that this market will be one of the firm's most important long-term geographies. The next chapter, we believe, will be defined by stronger products, better economics, deeper regulatory alignment, the transformative potential of AI and companies built with clarity about the customers and markets they truly serve.
India has become a core part of QED's long-term strategy. The most interesting part of the story may still be ahead.
Download the full report here
Why India matters
India's rise is not simply a story of scale. It is the compounding effect of several reinforcing forces: economic resilience, infrastructure formation, entrepreneurial maturity, a deep talent base and increasingly credible pathways to durable value creation.
The economy is powered by four attributes that produce unusual stability for an emerging market — it is domestic-demand driven, services-led, built on prudent financial policies and supported by steady structural reforms. India is expected to become the world's third-largest economy by 2029. And its contribution to global output, talent and entrepreneurship is growing more meaningful every year.
A defining feature of this progress has been infrastructure. National highways have expanded from 98,000 to over 146,000 kilometers. Airports have grown from 74 to 157. The India Stack — the digital public infrastructure for identity, payments and data-sharing — now operates at a scale unmatched anywhere in the world. Jan Dhan accounts have grown to approximately 550 million, and DigiLocker serves 600 million users. These rails have made it dramatically easier to onboard users, move money and build financial products at population scale.
What makes India distinctive
India rewards nuance. Treating it as a homogeneous market is one of the easiest ways to misread it. The affluent segment — roughly 140 million people — accounts for approximately $1.6 trillion of GDP and around 80 percent of financial assets. Below that, an emerging cohort of 420 million is rapidly digitizing and represents the most dynamic growth opportunity in Indian financial services. The best companies understand exactly which layer they serve and what economic model that customer can support.
Regulation has also shaped the market in important ways. While individual actions can be polarizing, the broader direction has improved long-term market quality. India's regulators are building with sustainability and customer outcomes in mind, and the companies that succeed are those building in step with that trajectory — not trying to outrun it.
Then there is AI, which carries what QED describes as a "Jekyll-and-Hyde" character. On one side, it extends India's software advantage, raises productivity, and creates global export opportunities. On the other, it threatens traditional services employment, compresses coding-heavy roles, and risks widening inequality. Navigating that tension thoughtfully is essential.
What we aim to contribute
QED's role in India goes beyond capital. The firm brings specialist financial services expertise, global pattern recognition and the ability to help founders build from India and scale into global markets. For co-investors, QED offers a specialist fintech lens that complements generalist approaches. The goal is to help founders see around corners — how analogous businesses have evolved elsewhere, what regulatory or business-model choices have mattered and how to scale with discipline.
Themes we're most excited about
Looking ahead, six themes define where QED sees the most compelling opportunity:
- AI-native financial services for enterprises — the re-architecture of banking operations through AI, from fraud detection to agentic compliance workflows and voice AI for financial services.
- AI-native financial services for consumers — conversational personal finance platforms, AI-native credit scoring and new-age marketplaces built for a generation already comfortable with conversational AI interfaces.
- Next-generation cross-border finance — B2B payment infrastructure on API-first and stablecoin rails, trade finance platforms and UPI-linked international corridors, capturing opportunity in India's $825 billion export market.
- Personalized wealth platforms at scale — full-stack wealth management for the mass-affluent segment, serving a market where over 216 million demat accounts are now open and 3 million new ones are added monthly.
- India-built businesses for the globe — leveraging India's deep technical talent and competitive cost structures to build globally competitive fintech companies from day one.
- Embedded fintech and vertical banking — financial services seamlessly integrated into non-financial platforms, alongside vertical specialists in healthcare, EV lending, agriculture and more who can underwrite and serve their industries better than generalists.
QED plans to invest $250 to $300 million over the next two fund generations in India. The firm's conviction is clear: India's richest opportunities in financial services still lie ahead.
Six years ago, QED entered India with a conviction that it would become one of the most important markets in financial services over the long term. The scale was evident, the entrepreneurial energy was real and the financial system was still early in its evolution. What was less clear was how quickly and substantively the progress would follow.
Today, that conviction has been validated — and then some. India's GDP has reached $4.5 trillion, growing at 6.4 percent, with a young, urbanizing population of 1.48 billion. Monthly UPI transactions now exceed 22 billion. Aadhaar covers 1.4 billion citizens. The startup ecosystem has grown from roughly 5,000 startups and eight unicorns in 2015 to over 200,000 startups and 116 unicorns in 2025. Capital markets exceed $5 trillion in market capitalization. The foundations — physical, digital and financial — have deepened in ways that have fundamentally changed the conditions for building.
But India is not a single, uniform opportunity. It is a layered market where different customer cohorts carry very different economics, behaviors and needs. National averages, particularly around monetization and ARPU, can obscure more than they reveal. The best fintech companies here are built with a sharp understanding of which market layer they serve and why. And the most enduring ones pair ambition with regulatory fluency, operating rigor and thoughtful product design.
Over these six years, QED has built a focused portfolio of eight Indian companies, a strong founder network and a growing conviction that this market will be one of the firm's most important long-term geographies. The next chapter, we believe, will be defined by stronger products, better economics, deeper regulatory alignment, the transformative potential of AI and companies built with clarity about the customers and markets they truly serve.
India has become a core part of QED's long-term strategy. The most interesting part of the story may still be ahead.
Download the full report here
Why India matters
India's rise is not simply a story of scale. It is the compounding effect of several reinforcing forces: economic resilience, infrastructure formation, entrepreneurial maturity, a deep talent base and increasingly credible pathways to durable value creation.
The economy is powered by four attributes that produce unusual stability for an emerging market — it is domestic-demand driven, services-led, built on prudent financial policies and supported by steady structural reforms. India is expected to become the world's third-largest economy by 2029. And its contribution to global output, talent and entrepreneurship is growing more meaningful every year.
A defining feature of this progress has been infrastructure. National highways have expanded from 98,000 to over 146,000 kilometers. Airports have grown from 74 to 157. The India Stack — the digital public infrastructure for identity, payments and data-sharing — now operates at a scale unmatched anywhere in the world. Jan Dhan accounts have grown to approximately 550 million, and DigiLocker serves 600 million users. These rails have made it dramatically easier to onboard users, move money and build financial products at population scale.
What makes India distinctive
India rewards nuance. Treating it as a homogeneous market is one of the easiest ways to misread it. The affluent segment — roughly 140 million people — accounts for approximately $1.6 trillion of GDP and around 80 percent of financial assets. Below that, an emerging cohort of 420 million is rapidly digitizing and represents the most dynamic growth opportunity in Indian financial services. The best companies understand exactly which layer they serve and what economic model that customer can support.
Regulation has also shaped the market in important ways. While individual actions can be polarizing, the broader direction has improved long-term market quality. India's regulators are building with sustainability and customer outcomes in mind, and the companies that succeed are those building in step with that trajectory — not trying to outrun it.
Then there is AI, which carries what QED describes as a "Jekyll-and-Hyde" character. On one side, it extends India's software advantage, raises productivity, and creates global export opportunities. On the other, it threatens traditional services employment, compresses coding-heavy roles, and risks widening inequality. Navigating that tension thoughtfully is essential.
What we aim to contribute
QED's role in India goes beyond capital. The firm brings specialist financial services expertise, global pattern recognition and the ability to help founders build from India and scale into global markets. For co-investors, QED offers a specialist fintech lens that complements generalist approaches. The goal is to help founders see around corners — how analogous businesses have evolved elsewhere, what regulatory or business-model choices have mattered and how to scale with discipline.
Themes we're most excited about
Looking ahead, six themes define where QED sees the most compelling opportunity:
- AI-native financial services for enterprises — the re-architecture of banking operations through AI, from fraud detection to agentic compliance workflows and voice AI for financial services.
- AI-native financial services for consumers — conversational personal finance platforms, AI-native credit scoring and new-age marketplaces built for a generation already comfortable with conversational AI interfaces.
- Next-generation cross-border finance — B2B payment infrastructure on API-first and stablecoin rails, trade finance platforms and UPI-linked international corridors, capturing opportunity in India's $825 billion export market.
- Personalized wealth platforms at scale — full-stack wealth management for the mass-affluent segment, serving a market where over 216 million demat accounts are now open and 3 million new ones are added monthly.
- India-built businesses for the globe — leveraging India's deep technical talent and competitive cost structures to build globally competitive fintech companies from day one.
- Embedded fintech and vertical banking — financial services seamlessly integrated into non-financial platforms, alongside vertical specialists in healthcare, EV lending, agriculture and more who can underwrite and serve their industries better than generalists.
QED plans to invest $250 to $300 million over the next two fund generations in India. The firm's conviction is clear: India's richest opportunities in financial services still lie ahead.