Fintechs chase new revenue; Flipkart’s food delivery launch

Happy Monday! As core growth cools, India's listed fintechs are diversifying fast and launching new products. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:
■ Zepto pauses IPO
■ Shiprocket’s listing plans
■ Tata, ASML in talks for new project

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India's fintechs are looking beyond their core businesses as growth normalises and investors seek more predictable revenue. Groww, Paytm, Pine Labs and Kissht are using their networks to add new products and reduce their exposure to low payment monetisation, market cycles and unsecured credit.

Growth moves out of the fast lane:

• Groww’s revenue growth slowed from more than doubling in FY24 to 50% in FY25 and 19% in FY26; Pine Labs' eased to 19% from 29%.
• Paytm's payments revenue grew 33% in June after contracting in FY25, though the growth came off a base that was still rebuilding after regulatory action.
• PhonePe’s growth slowed to 11% from 40% after real-money gaming and rent-payment revenue streams ended. Non-payment businesses contributed 18% of first-half FY26 revenue, up from 7% in FY23. The company withdrew its IPO earlier this year citing choppy markets and a valuation mismatch.

Finding new engines:

• Financial services formed a third of Paytm’s FY26 revenue, while it plans to invest Rs 100 crore in Paytm Money.
• Pine Labs’ card-issuing services and prepaid distribution grew twice as fast as merchant payments and transaction processing.
• Groww is adding wealth products as equity derivatives’ income share falls; Kissht is expanding secured credit and mutual-fund distribution.

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Flipkart is likely to launch food delivery in Bengaluru around mid-August, with talks pointing to commissions and charges of up to 11%, people in the know said.

Driving the news: The commission would be much lower than the 25-30% charged by Swiggy and Zomato, and is closer to Rapido’s low- or zero-commission approach with Ownly.

• Sources say Flipkart has floated a 9% commission plus 2% handling charge, though final pricing is still being discussed.
• The pilot may use both its main app and a separate app, and will begin in partnership with ONDC.
• Flipkart plans to test both faster delivery for cheaper items and standard delivery, then decide how to expand.

Setting context: This comes as restaurants push back against incumbent food delivery fees and policies.

Rapido’s Ownly has intensified that pressure with a no-commission model, and Swiggy and Zomato have already responded with lower-priced offerings like Toing and Bistro.

In the fray: Flipkart’s entry adds another challenge to the duopoly, but the early focus is on affordability and speed rather than a full national rollout. The company appears to be using Bengaluru as a test bed before deciding whether and how to scale further.

Also Read: Flipkart's Kalyan Krishnamurthy rules out IPO timeline, plays down quick commerce as a separate business

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Zepto said on Saturday it has agreed with its major shareholders to close a pre-IPO equity round and defer its public listing.

The company said it will focus on execution for now, citing its strong balance sheet, adding that it will update its draft papers with upcoming financial results.

What happened: ET was the first to report on July 29 that Zepto might defer its listing after a disagreement over its valuation with public market investors.

Sources said discussions from large investors for Zepto's anchor book were around $2.5-3 billion. This was less than the $3.5-4 billion value being discussed in July. It is less than half of the $7 billion at which Zepto had raised its last funding round in October 2025.

CEO’s take: In a townhall on Friday, CEO Aadit Palicha told employees that the quick commerce company will refile for an IPO over the coming two quarters.

"Palicha also told employees that it will tighten its focus on reducing cash burn while continuing to drive growth before the company refiles its prospectus," one of the sources told us.

Financials: Zepto said it had Rs 5,681 crore in cash reserves as of March 31, 2026. Even so, the startup’s need for capital is clear from its losses and cash burn. It reported an operating loss of Rs 1,247 crore in the January-March quarter.

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Saahil Goel, CEO, Shiprocket

Ecommerce logistics services firm Shiprocket is joining the queue of new-age companies hitting the bourses, planning to launch its IPO in the coming one to two weeks, sources said.

Details: It is eyeing a valuation of about Rs 7,000 crore, down about 30% from its last private round valuation of Rs 10,000 crore when the Gurgaon-based firm raised capital in December 2024.

Shiprocket is also expected to file a revised prospectus with updated financials before launching the issue.

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Tata talks subassembly production with ASML: Tata Electronics is in early discussions with its Dutch partner ASML to explore manufacturing components and subassemblies for the world’s most advanced chipmaking equipment, potentially marking India’s entry into the manufacturing ecosystem behind semiconductor lithography, people familiar with the matter told ET.

UPI volumes hit record high in July: India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed 23.66 billion transactions worth Rs 29.88 lakh crore in July, marking record-high volumes after a marginal dip in June.

Inside DLI 2.0: The second edition of the Design-linked Incentive scheme (DLI 2.0) may offer seed funding, equity co-investment and royalty-based support to semiconductor chip design companies to boost domestic capabilities, according to the framework prepared by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

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