Fintechs clash in cross-border payments; TCS closes FY26 strong

Happy Friday! Large companies are fighting early-stage startups in the cross-border payments battleground. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:
■ Harshita Arora makes YC history
■ Ex-Ola execs' startup to raise funds
■ What's fueling ecommerce's 2026 growth

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Cross-border payments are becoming the next major battleground for Indian fintech. What began as a space for early-stage startups is now being encroached upon by well-funded payment giants.

Driving the news: Large payment firms like Razorpay, PayU and Cashfree are using their technology stack and balance sheets to build richer products for international flows. This is squeezing early-stage startups built specifically for cross-border use cases.

Status check:

• Razorpay is targeting large global brands that need support for their India operations.
• Cashfree is going after software exporters and riding the AI services boom.
• PayU is pitching a full-stack payments platform to big brands.

Rising competition: For fintechs, the biggest rivals are still banks. Lenders control most of the export-import market and have long-term relationships with large corporates. That has pushed fintechs to focus on smaller enterprises, ecommerce sellers, and freelancers.

The result is a knife fight for the same pool of customers, with startups battling for share and smaller players struggling to scale.

Also Read: Gulf crisis clouds cross-border payments startups’ business outlook

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K Krithivasan, CEO, TCS

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) kicked off the earnings season with a strong fourth quarter, beating revenue estimates on the back of a resilient North America business.

Number-wise:

• Net profit: Up 12% year-on-year (YoY) at Rs 13,718 crore
• Revenue: Up 9.6% at Rs 70,698 crore
• Dividend: Rs 31 per share
• Operating margin: 25.3%
• Total contract value (TCV): $12 billion

Tell me more:

• The IT bellwether, however, posted its first annual revenue decline since going public at 2.4% in constant currency terms for FY26.
• TCS also reported the highest net margin in the last four years.
• Its AI revenue crossed $2.3 billion.
• The company ended the quarter with 584,519 employees, down 23,460 from a year ago.

Also Read: TCS rides AI demand; mega deals power Q4 results

War impact: CEO K Krithivasan said TCS is “getting into next year with a lot of positivity and confidence,” with some cautiousness baked in due to the West Asia war. “At this time, I think the impact (of the war) will be limited to the travel and transportation (industry) and probably the work we do in the Middle East,” he said.

Also Read: TCS is asking staff to use AI even if it hits revenues: CEO K Krithivasan

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Harshita Arora, a 25-year-old entrepreneur from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, has become the youngest general partner at storied startup accelerator Y Combinator.

Arora joined YC as a visiting partner in the summer of 2025, mentoring early-stage founders, before being elevated to general partner.

Her early journey: Arora dropped out after eighth grade, tried homeschooling, and then chose an unconventional route into tech. She interned at Salesforce in Bengaluru at 16, attended a short entrepreneurship programme at MIT, and later built a crypto portfolio-tracking app that found users in the US and Canada.

Building AtoB: She moved to San Francisco on an O-1 visa and cofounded AtoB in 2019 with YC backing. The company offers fleet cards, instant payouts and financial tools for trucking businesses, serves more than 30,000 fleets, and is valued at $700 million.

At YC: As a general partner, Arora will work directly with founders across stages. YC is best known for backing companies such as Airbnb, Stripe and Dropbox.

Also Read: Elon Musk elevates Indian-origin trio to leadership roles in xAI overhaul

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Slokarth Dash and Suvonil Chatterjee, founders, Manav Robotics

Manav Robotics, a startup founded by former Ola executives, is in talks to raise its first round of funding of about $15-20 million, sources told us.

The details:

• Early-stage investor Blume Ventures and US-based Qualcomm Ventures are in discussions to lead the round.
• A group of Indian founders is also expected to participate.
• The deal adds to a busy 12–15 months for India's robotics sector.

About the startup: Founded by former senior Ola executives Suvonil Chatterjee and Slokarth Dash, Manav Robotics is building a robotic hand that can “feel” and sense its actions through touch, force, position awareness, and vision. The goal is more precise object handling in industrial settings, according to people aware of the product.


Bay Capital Digital managing partners Sandeep Barasia and Tej Kapoor

India-focused investor Bay Capital is rolling out a new Digital Opportunities Fund to bet on public and private digital businesses in India.

Driving the news: The fund has named former Delhivery chief business officer Sandeep Barasia and ICICI Venture's Tej Kapoor as cofounders and managing partners.

• The Category II AIF plans 10-15 investments in high-quality, high-growth companies.
• Bay Capital will invest selectively across both private and public markets.
• Its existing portfolio includes Lenskart, Ixigo, CarTrade Tech and PolicyBazaar.

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Ecommerce sees 25% growth in Q1 of 2026: India's ecommerce sector grew 25% in the first quarter of calendar year 2026, according to a recent report by Flipkart and Bain & Company. The report attributes the rise to stronger consumer sentiment and policy-led tailwinds.

Vibhor Jain appointed CEO of ONDC: Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), the government-backed protocol that connects buyers and sellers through multiple apps, has promoted Vibhor Jain to managing director and chief executive officer, effective April 7.

Mamaearth parent's Q4 outlook: Gurugram-based Honasa Consumer expects a steady January-March quarter but said growth will moderate due to a shift in how revenue linked to the Flipkart group is recognised, it said in an exchange filing.

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■ Meta cafeteria workers did what execs won't: took on ICE and won (Wired)

■ The blue light from your phone isn't ruining your sleep (BBC)

■ White-collar industries bet on a secret weapon against AI: trust (FT)