BharatPe
“Can a zero-MDR UPI QR business monetize 17M Indian merchants through lending and a partial bank stake before regulators tighten the embedded-credit playbook?”
Founded2018
HQNew Delhi, India
FoundersAshneer Grover, Shashvat Nakrani, Bhavik Koladiya
Total raised$583M+
Latest roundLater Stage VC, $100M
Valuation$2.85B (2021 unicorn round)
IndustryFintech / SMB banking
The story
Founded 2018 as a zero-MDR UPI QR for offline merchants. Built distribution to 17M+ merchants then layered unsecured working-capital loans (via NBFC partners) as the monetization engine. Took a 49% stake in Unity Small Finance Bank in 2021 — its closest thing to a banking license — and acquired Trillionloans NBFC in 2023 to internalize lending. Now positioning as a full-stack merchant fintech with payments + lending + co-branded credit + consumer UPI under one brand, having absorbed the failed postpe BNPL product back into the parent.
Product timeline
2018
Launched India's first interoperable UPI QR with zero MDR· payments
2019
Forayed into unsecured merchant lending in partnership with RBI-approved NBFCs· lending
2020
Launched BharatSwipe card machine; became India's third-largest P2M UPI player· payments
2021
Acquired PAYBACK India loyalty program; reached unicorn status at $2.85B; acquired 49% stake in Unity Small Finance Bank; launched postpe BNPL· acquisition
2023
Resilient Payments received in-principle RBI nod as payment aggregator; acquired majority stake in Trillionloans NBFC; turned EBITDA positive in October· lending
2024
Launched BharatPe One all-in-one payment device; expanded into secured loans with OTO Capital and Volt Money· lending
2025
Rebranded postpe consumer app to BharatPe consumer· pivot
Regulated entities
3
regulatory licences held by BharatPe
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
6 layers disclosed in BharatPe’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
BharatPe QR (self-operated)BharatPe One (self-operated)BharatPe Swipe (self-operated)BharatPe Speaker (self-operated)BharatPe UPI (self-operated, UPI TPAP)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Ledger
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Sponsor bank
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
11 more providers across 5 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.