Kiwi is a fintech company based in India, with reports differing between Mumbai and Bengaluru, that lets users make UPI payments using RuPay credit cards issued with partner banks.

This Startup Deep Dive explains what Kiwi 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.

Kiwi in Brief

• What it is: Kiwi is an Indian Credit on UPI company based in Bengaluru.
• Who it serves: consumers, merchants, banks, lenders and enterprises.
• Kiwi lets users pay on UPI using RuPay credit cards, issuing virtual RuPay cards with partner banks that link to UPI apps such as Google Pay and PhonePe.
• The company has said it plans credit-line and no-cost EMI offerings on UPI.
• It reports over 200,000 cards issued and more than five million monthly merchant transactions across 600 cities (company-stated).
• Funding: About $43 million across seed, Series A and Series B (reported).

Kiwi 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 Kiwi?

Kiwi operates in the Credit on UPI 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 Kiwi.

• Kiwi lets users pay on UPI using RuPay credit cards, issuing virtual RuPay cards with partner banks that link to UPI apps such as Google Pay and PhonePe.
• The company has said it plans credit-line and no-cost EMI offerings on UPI.
• It reports over 200,000 cards issued and more than five million monthly merchant transactions across 600 cities (company-stated).

The Origin Story of Kiwi

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: Siddharth Mehta, Mohit Bedi, Anup Agrawal.
• Founded in November 2022 by Siddharth Mehta, Mohit Bedi and Anup Agrawal.
• Mehta is a former Freecharge CEO, Bedi was at Axis Bank and PayU, and Agrawal led the business at LazyPay; Agrawal is co-founder and CEO.
• Described as the first fintech in India to launch credit cards on UPI by issuing digital RuPay cards with banks (reported).

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 Credit on UPI 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.

• November 2022: Founded.
• May 2023: About $6 million seed round led by Nexus Venture Partners.
• November 2023: $13 million (about Rs 108 crore) Series A led by Omidyar Network India; about 25,000 cards issued at the time.
• August 2025: $24 million (Rs 208.5 crore) Series B led by Vertex Ventures SEA and India.
• FY25: Net loss widened to about Rs 64.2 crore.
• Target: 1 million cards by 2027 (company-stated).

Kiwi 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.

• Seed of about $6 million led by Nexus Venture Partners with Stellaris Venture Partners and angels, May 2023 (reported).
• Series A of $13 million (about Rs 108 crore) led by Omidyar Network India with Nexus and Stellaris, November 2023 (reported).
• Series B of $24 million (Rs 208.5 crore) led by Vertex Ventures SEA and India (about Rs 113 crore), with Nexus, Stellaris and Omidyar participating, August 2025 (reported).

How Does Kiwi 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.

• Depends on partner banks (YES Bank, AU Small Finance Bank) as card issuers.
• Offers cashback on UPI spend with paid upgrade tiers (company blog).

The Numbers: Kiwi 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 (year to March 2025): operating revenue about Rs 3.8 crore versus Rs 3.6 crore in FY24; net loss about Rs 64.2 crore versus Rs 24.8 crore (up 159%).
• FY25: total expenses about Rs 73.8 crore versus Rs 30.1 crore; advertising Rs 38.5 crore, employee costs Rs 22.7 crore, software Rs 6 crore.
• FY25: other income of Rs 5.8 crore, total income Rs 9.6 crore.

Market Opportunity for Kiwi

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.

• Credit on UPI lets RuPay credit cards be used at merchants that accept UPI QR codes, a segment where several fintechs compete.
• Kiwi says it covers 600 cities with over five million monthly merchant transactions (company-stated).

Technology and Product at Kiwi

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.

• Issues digital RuPay credit cards that link to UPI apps and work at standard UPI QR codes.

Team and Culture at Kiwi

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.

• Co-founders Siddharth Mehta, Anup Agrawal and Mohit Bedi together hold about 35.48% after the Series B.
• Nexus Venture Partners holds about 21.06%, Stellaris about 15.47% and Vertex Ventures about 13% (reported).
• Sumeet Basrani was appointed Chief Business Officer (reported).

Kiwi 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 Kiwi

• Net loss rose to about Rs 64.2 crore in FY25 on operating revenue of about Rs 3.8 crore, driven by advertising and employee costs.
• The model depends on partner banks to issue cards and on RuPay credit on UPI rules.
• Revenue was flat year on year in FY25 while expenses rose about 145%.
• 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.

Kiwi Growth Outlook: What to Watch

• Targets 1 million cards by 2027 (company-stated).
• The CEO has targeted profitability within about two years (reported).
• Key indicators: transaction value, take rate, active users, credit quality and cost of acquiring each customer.
• Funding position: Whether Kiwi can reach its next milestone before needing new capital.
• Regulation: Changes from the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and NPCI.

Industry Context: Where Kiwi 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 Kiwi

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 Kiwi.

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 Kiwi

Studying a company in the Credit on UPI space offers lessons that go beyond any single firm. The points below are general lessons for the sector and are not claims about Kiwi.

• 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 Kiwi as a Startup

• Customer clarity: Can Kiwi 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

Kiwi is part of India’s growing Credit on UPI 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.

Kiwi FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Kiwi?

Kiwi is a fintech company based in India, with reports differing between Mumbai and Bengaluru, that lets users make UPI payments using RuPay credit cards issued with partner banks. It is profiled in the Startup Deep Dive series, which explains business model, funding, competitors and risks.

Who founded Kiwi?

Kiwi was founded by Siddharth Mehta, Mohit Bedi, Anup Agrawal, and the company reports a founding year of 2022.

How much funding has Kiwi raised?

About $43 million across seed, Series A and Series B (reported). Funding figures are reported and may differ between sources, so readers should check the latest company announcements.

How does Kiwi make money?

Kiwi earns revenue from its Credit on UPI 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 Kiwi?

Reported rivals include Slice, OneCard, Uni. See the competitor comparison above for how they differ.

What are the main risks for Kiwi?

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.