“Can a neobank survive in India when it can't hold deposits or originate credit on its own balance sheet?”
Founded 2019 by ex-Google Pay founders as a millennial-focused neobank for India, partnering with Federal Bank for the underlying savings account. Expanded into investing (mutual funds, US stocks) and loan distribution, but the lending business — which was meant to be the revenue engine — failed to scale, triggering a cash crunch and layoffs in 2024. By 2026 Fi is being wound down as a standalone banking app: new account opening has stopped and existing customers are being migrated to Federal Bank's own FedMobile app, signaling an existential pivot away from neobanking toward AI-financial-data products like Fi MCP.