PayNearby is a Mumbai-based fintech company that equips neighbourhood kirana stores and small retailers to offer assisted financial services such as cash withdrawal, money transfer, insurance and loans.

This Startup Deep Dive explains what PayNearby does, how it makes money, who backs it, how it compares with rivals and what could go wrong, using publicly available information. It is educational and not investment advice. Last updated: October 2026.

PayNearby in Brief

• What it is: PayNearby is an Indian Retail assisted fintech company based in Mumbai.
• Who it serves: consumers, merchants, banks, lenders and enterprises.
• PayNearby uses a B2B2C model, partnering with local retail stores to offer assisted digital financial services.
• Services include AePS cash withdrawal, Aadhaar ATM, money transfer, utility payments, insurance, travel and EMI collection.
• It distributes prepaid telecom and DTH recharges, sells subscription packages and devices such as AePS devices and micro ATMs, and offers loans (home, two-wheeler, personal, gold) with partners such as Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance.
• Funding: Minimal outside capital: a small seed investment from the Roha Group is mentioned in one profile, a database lists USD 2.5 million in one 2018 round, and the company says growth is funded by internal accruals; reports differ.

PayNearby Quick Facts

Figures marked “reported” come from published reports and may differ between sources; “Not disclosed” means no reliable public figure was found.

What Is PayNearby?

PayNearby operates in the Retail assisted fintech space in India. Understanding a company like this starts with three questions: who is the customer, what painful problem is being solved, and why the solution is better than the alternatives. The sections below apply that lens to PayNearby.

• PayNearby uses a B2B2C model, partnering with local retail stores to offer assisted digital financial services.
• Services include AePS cash withdrawal, Aadhaar ATM, money transfer, utility payments, insurance, travel and EMI collection.
• It distributes prepaid telecom and DTH recharges, sells subscription packages and devices such as AePS devices and micro ATMs, and offers loans (home, two-wheeler, personal, gold) with partners such as Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance.
• It sells enterprise solutions to NBFCs, e-commerce firms and financial institutions.
• Retail partners number over 13 lakh in 2025 (company-stated), covering 20,000+ PIN codes; earlier coverage cited about 15 lakh stores.

The Origin Story of PayNearby

Every company starts from a noticed gap and a team willing to commit to closing it. Strong origin stories are specific: a clear problem, a founding team with relevant skills, and an early product that real customers could test. Founder-market fit, meaning the team’s lived experience or technical depth in the domain, tends to predict how fast a young company learns.

• Founders: Anand Kumar Bajaj, Yashwant Lodha, Subhash Kumar, Rajesh Jha.
• PayNearby was founded in April 2016 in Mumbai (legal entity Nearby Technologies) by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Subhash Kumar, Yashwant Lodha and Rajesh Jha; some profiles omit Jha.
• Bajaj is CEO and Managing Director; a profile says he graduated from BITS Pilani and spent a decade at ICICI and YES Bank before seeing the gap between urban and rural banking.
• It set out to turn kirana stores into last-mile financial access points.

Key Milestones and Challenges

No startup grows in a straight line. Early years usually involve slow adoption, product rewrites, hiring mistakes and funding gaps. In the Retail assisted fintech sector the common turning points are a first paying customer, a regulatory approval, a successful product demonstration or a funding round that lets the team invest ahead of demand. How a team responds to setbacks says more about resilience than any single headline.

• April 2016: company founded in Mumbai.
• FY2020-21: gross transaction value of Rs 54,000 crore (company-stated).
• Early 2022: over Rs 5,500 crore monthly transactions and about 15 lakh retail stores (company-stated).
• June 2025: FY25 EBITDA about Rs 17 crore, 12 consecutive profitable quarters, plan to invest USD 50-60 million over three years from internal accruals.
• August 2025: CEO said the IPO process had begun with three merchant bankers in talks.
• December 2025: NPCI approval as a Third Party Application Provider for UPI.

PayNearby Funding and Investors

Funding history shows how much outside confidence a company has attracted and how long it can operate before needing more capital. Figures below are reported and may differ between sources; valuation figures are estimates unless the company has confirmed them.

• Reported by a database: USD 2.5 million in a single 2018 round led by Fintech For The Last Mile.
• A profile mentions only a small seed investment from the Roha Group.
• The company says growth is funded through internal accruals, with no external round announced; reports differ.

How Does PayNearby Make Money? (Business Model)

A business model describes who pays, how often and how much it costs to serve them. Strong models show repeat usage, improving margins with scale and acquisition channels that do not depend only on paid spend. Weak models show one-off sales, rising costs and growth that stops when spending stops. For companies selling to consumers, merchants, banks, lenders and enterprises, sales cycles and contract size matter as much as headline growth.

• PayNearby earns commissions and fees from banks and partners on transactions processed by retailers (AePS, money transfer, bill payment, insurance distribution).
• It also earns from recharge distribution, subscriptions and hardware sales to retailers, and from loan lead generation.
• Enterprise solutions for NBFCs and financial institutions add B2B revenue.
• Partner banks have included YES Bank, State Bank of India, RBL Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

The Numbers: PayNearby Financials

Financial figures show whether growth is turning into a self-sustaining business. Small and private companies often disclose little, so any number below is included only if it was found in public reporting.

• FY25 (consolidated): revenue Rs 298.8 crore, down 16% from Rs 357.3 crore in FY24; profit after tax Rs 11.4 crore versus Rs 1.9 crore; total expenses Rs 294.7 crore versus Rs 369.5 crore.
• Another tracker gives FY25 revenue of about Rs 310 crore versus about Rs 374 crore in FY24; reports differ.
• Company-stated: FY25 EBITDA about Rs 17 crore and gross revenue about Rs 300 crore; expects about 10% revenue growth in FY26.
• Cap table (May 2025): founders hold 77.1% and investors 17.9% (reported).

Market Opportunity for PayNearby

Market size is easy to exaggerate, so a useful approach separates the total market from the portion a company can realistically reach with its current product and distribution. The main forces behind demand in this sector are the scale of UPI, rising digital lending, growing participation in investing and insurance, and the digitisation of small merchants. Each of these widens the opportunity, but capital efficiency and execution decide who captures it.

• Kirana stores and small retailers in semi-urban and rural India serving customers with limited bank access.
• Company-stated goal of onboarding 500 million users through UPI adoption.

Technology and Product at PayNearby

Technology is rarely the whole moat, but it drives speed, cost and customer experience. A practical way to assess it is to separate the capability the company controls from the commodity infrastructure it rents. In this sector the important factors are uptime, security, fraud controls, integrations with banks and the speed of onboarding customers.

• Retailer app and devices (AePS devices, micro ATMs) connecting merchants to banks and NBFCs.
• UPI third-party application approval received in December 2025.

Team and Culture at PayNearby

Teams are the most important and least measurable asset of a young company. Look at how complementary the founders’ skills are, how deep the second layer of leadership is, and how the company hires and retains specialists. Culture shows up in small repeated behaviours: how quickly bad news travels upward and whether commitments to customers are kept.

• Anand Kumar Bajaj is CEO and MD.
• About 850 employees as of March 2025, with 300-400 hires planned by March 2026.

PayNearby Competitors: Competitive Landscape

A fair competitive analysis names direct rivals, adjacent players who could move into the space, and the customer’s default alternative. Durable advantages include proprietary data or technology, licences and approvals, brand trust, switching costs and cost leadership.

Risks and Challenges for PayNearby

• Revenue fell 16% in FY25 despite higher profit, and revenue figures differ across sources.
• Funding history is unclear and the IPO has not yet been filed with SEBI.
• Regulatory scrutiny of AePS and dependence on partner banks.
• Thin margins in recharge and transaction commissions.
• Regulatory risk: rules from the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI or NPCI can change economics or business scope quickly.
• Concentration risk: dependence on a few partners, banks or payment rails can create single points of failure.

Risk is not a reason to avoid a company; it is a reason to price it correctly and to monitor the right indicators over time. Regulation in this sector is shaped by the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and NPCI.

PayNearby Growth Outlook: What to Watch

• The CEO expects about 10% revenue growth in FY26 and plans to add 5 lakh retailers over two years.
• The company plans to select a merchant banker for an IPO.
• Key indicators: transaction value, take rate, active users, credit quality and cost of acquiring each customer.
• Funding position: Whether PayNearby can reach its next milestone before needing new capital.
• Regulation: Changes from the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and NPCI.

Industry Context: Where PayNearby Fits

India's financial technology sector has been shaped by public digital infrastructure, especially UPI, along with Aadhaar-based identity, the account aggregator framework and regulation from the RBI, SEBI and IRDAI. These rails let startups reach customers and merchants at very low cost, but also expose them to fast-changing rules on licensing, data and lending conduct.

As payments become a low-margin commodity, fintech companies increasingly compete on distribution, merchant services, credit, wealth and insurance products. Sustainable profit usually depends on compliance strength, cost control and the quality of customer relationships rather than transaction volume alone.

For readers new to this field, a useful habit is to separate announcements from evidence. A plan, a partnership or a funding headline describes intent, while a delivered product, a paying customer or an audited financial statement describes results. Comparing the two over time shows how reliably a company turns promises into outcomes.

Bull Case and Bear Case for PayNearby

An investment thesis is a short, testable statement of why a company could become far more valuable, together with what evidence would prove it wrong. The points below are general to this sector and are not forecasts for PayNearby.

Bull case

• Digital payments and credit continue to grow, widening the market.
• Strong compliance and distribution create durable advantages.
• Cross-selling to existing customers can lift revenue per user.

Bear case

• Regulatory shifts can change economics overnight.
• Free or low-fee products make profit hard to reach.
• Fraud, outages and partner dependence can hurt trust.

Lessons Founders and Investors Can Take from PayNearby

Studying a company in the Retail assisted fintech space offers lessons that go beyond any single firm. The points below are general lessons for the sector and are not claims about PayNearby.

• Compliance is a growth enabler in financial services, not just a cost, because licences decide what a company is allowed to sell.
• Distribution and customer trust often matter more than the underlying payment or lending technology.
• Products that earn from services and credit tend to be steadier than ones that depend on free transactions.
• Dependence on a single bank partner or rail creates risk that should be managed early.
• Fraud prevention and uptime are core product features, not back-office tasks.

How to Evaluate PayNearby as a Startup

• Customer clarity: Can PayNearby name its customer and the problem it solves in one sentence?
• Evidence of demand: Look for repeat customers, signed contracts or measurable usage rather than announcements alone.
• Economics: Check whether margins improve as volume grows.
• Execution: Compare announced timelines with what has actually been delivered.
• Funding runway: Estimate how long current capital lasts at the present spending rate.
• Regulatory standing: Confirm required approvals are in place.
• Customer concentration: Check whether a few customers account for most of the revenue.
• Management depth: Look for experienced leaders beyond the founders and a stable core team.

The Takeaway

PayNearby is part of India’s growing Retail assisted fintech ecosystem. The useful lesson from studying it is the discipline of asking structured questions about customers, economics, advantage and resilience. Companies that answer them well, repeatedly and under pressure are the ones that endure. Readers should treat any single report, ranking or funding headline as one input among many, and should re-check key facts against recent company announcements. Because public information on young companies is often limited, patience in verifying claims is part of good analysis. Public sources can also describe the same company in different ways, so it is worth checking dates, definitions and whether a figure refers to revenue, total income or transaction value, and whether it covers one entity or a wider group, before drawing conclusions. Small differences in rounding, currency conversion or reporting periods can also change how a figure reads. Comparing the same figure across several recent reports helps show whether it is stable or has changed over time. This article is educational and is not investment advice.

• Clear customers and repeat demand matter more than announcements.
• Regulation and capital needs shape how fast a startup in this sector can grow.
• Track a few leading indicators over time rather than one headline metric.

PayNearby FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

What is PayNearby?

PayNearby is a Mumbai-based fintech company that equips neighbourhood kirana stores and small retailers to offer assisted financial services such as cash withdrawal, money transfer, insurance and loans. It is profiled in the Startup Deep Dive series, which explains business model, funding, competitors and risks.

Who founded PayNearby?

PayNearby was founded by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Yashwant Lodha, Subhash Kumar, Rajesh Jha, and the company reports a founding year of 2016.

How much funding has PayNearby raised?

Minimal outside capital: a small seed investment from the Roha Group is mentioned in one profile, a database lists USD 2.5 million in one 2018 round, and the company says growth is funded by internal accruals; reports differ. Funding figures are reported and may differ between sources, so readers should check the latest company announcements.

How does PayNearby make money?

PayNearby earns revenue from its Retail assisted fintech products and services sold to consumers, merchants, banks, lenders and enterprises. The exact revenue mix is described in the business model section and is not fully disclosed publicly.

Who are the competitors of PayNearby?

Reported rivals include Spice Money, Fino Payments Bank, Fingpay, PocketATM. See the competitor comparison above for how they differ.

What are the main risks for PayNearby?

Main risks include rules from the rbi, sebi, irdai or npci can change economics or business scope quickly, funding and capital needs, competition and regulation by the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and NPCI. This is educational content, not investment advice.

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Source

Source: Publicly available data, published reports, industry research, and other credible sources.