London-based digital finance firm Revolut will launch its online payment platform in India, marking its first entry into one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing digital payments markets. The move is a key part of Revolut’s global expansion strategy as it eyes major growth opportunities across Asia.
Revolut will enable Indian users to make domestic and international payments through partnerships with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Visa. The rollout will begin later this year with an initial 350,000 waitlisted customers, followed by wider availability, Reuters news report said.
The UK-based fintech giant plans to offer a prepaid card and a digital wallet to Indian users. Revolut India CEO Paroma Chatterjee said the company will leverage the prepaid payments instrument (PPI) license granted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) earlier this year to provide domestic payment services. The company also holds a foreign exchange license, enabling seamless cross-border transactions.
As part of its long-term goal, Revolut aims to reach 20 million users in India by 2030, focusing on the “aspirational youth” demographic—a segment that has been at the forefront of the country’s fintech adoption.
Revolut has invested more than £40 million (approximately $53.7 million) to localize its technology infrastructure to comply with India’s data sovereignty regulations—a step the company has not taken in any other market.
The launch reflects Revolut’s strategy to expand beyond Europe, following its recent moves to explore a U.S. bank acquisition and credit card launch in the UK. With India’s digital payments ecosystem continuing to surge, Revolut’s localized approach could help it carve out a significant presence in the region’s competitive fintech landscape.
India’s payments ecosystem is seeing rapid innovation and competition. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) continues to dominate — in FY25 it accounted for roughly 83.7 percent of all digital transaction volume, growing by over 40 percent year-on-year, both in number and value of transactions. POS terminals (physical devices for in-person card/QR payments) and QR-code payments are growing rapidly.
Several companies are expanding offerings to merchants: Zoho has launched PoS devices, soundboxes, virtual accounts, payouts and marketplace settlement tools. PhonePe introduced a “SmartPOD” device that merges card and UPI-based payment acceptance, targeting small merchants.
PayPal is integrating UPI into its new global payments platform (“PayPal World”), making UPI the first payments-system partner for that platform.
Other noteworthy developments include Cred joining the RBI’s digital currency project (e-rupee) to offer e-rupee wallets to select users. Regulatory/licensing moves continue: smaller players like Getepay have obtained RBI approval as payment aggregators to serve merchants, especially in underserved regions.
Meanwhile, Amazon Pay India’s revenues dropped around 9 percent year-over-year, though it has slightly reduced losses.
Rajani Baburajan
