Nandan Nilekani’s Fundamentum targets more fintech investments as ecosystem matures
“India’s digital public infrastructure is established and ready, the ecosystem is ready and the market is still wide open in terms of financial inclusion,” said Mayank Kachhwaha, who leads fintech investments at the VC firm. Mint.
Fundamentum recently led a $23 million Series C round in personal loan provider platform Olyv. Nilekani’s VC fund previously participated in Flexiloans’ $44 million Series C in June last year; also led asset tech startup Stable Money’s $20 million Series B in June 2025, and most recently participated in TransBnk’s $25 million Series B from August last year, led by Bessemer Venture Partners.
Like most venture capital firms and family offices, Fundamentum is extremely selective about the startups it invests in, evaluating five to 10 companies each week. This does not mean that their relationships with companies begin only when the company wants to invest. “Some of these, the relationships we’ve built over the years before we said yes, this is where we’ll come in, they’re growing rapidly and they need our help,” Kachhwaha said.
Fundamentum’s decision to back more fintechs comes at a time when major players such as India’s Pine Labs and Groww are going public, with more expected this year. Heavyweights such as Razorpay, PhonePe, InCred, Innoviti, Kissht and PayU India are among those expected to make initial public offerings this year. While most of these are payment infrastructure and credit solutions companies, venture capital is now investing in second-wave fintech startups and bringing new business models and financial products to Indian consumers.
The investment in Olyv is Fundamentum’s fourth fintech investment, bringing the VC firm’s total to nearly half of the 11 investments it made through the second fund of $227 million.
Typically, the firm provides growth capital by writing an initial check of $10-15 million in financing rounds it manages, before writing larger follow-on checks. “We like to come to post-product market fit where these companies are transitioning and actually trying to create institutions,” Kachhwaha said.
interests
Currently, Fundamentum does not have a specific target for the number of fintech companies in its third fund portfolio. However, the firm’s fintech interests are primarily focused on technology-first companies that use India as a primary market.
Being the ‘first in India’ forms the basis of Fundamentum’s overall thesis. However, within the scope of fintech, the company generally tries to support companies in four segments: micro, small and medium-sized business credit, consumer credit, asset technology and banking infrastructure.
For example, the MSME lending space remains largely underserved despite the increasing number of businesses in the sector. According to a report prepared by the Small Industries Development Bank of India last year, approximately ₹30 trillion (about $300 billion).
According to the report, registrations of businesses in the sector increased from Rs 2.5 billion in March 2024 to over Rs 6.2 crore in March last year; This shows that the need for access to credit is increasing. He also pointed out that digital lending for MSMEs, which is Fundamentum’s area of interest, is a ‘major emerging opportunity’ given that 90% of respondents accept digital payments.
“As India’s gross domestic product grows, its per capita GDP also increases, along with which we will see more people coming under credit,” Kachhwaha said. “We also see that companies are now starting to serve the first 100 million customers and the next 400 million users.”
The firm sees an opportunity to create India-specific savings products as financialization in wealth technology deepens. But this too is changing.
Low risk options
The flow of money into systematic investment schemes has increased rapidly in the last few years. According to IIFL Capital, average monthly SIP flows have increased by around 2.75 times since FY22 and 7.79 times since FY2017. “Indians are still risk-averse but comfortable with fixed deposits. Using this, it is very easy to give them a familiar product and start them on the journey to wealth,” Kachhwaha said.
Another area the firm is considering is insurtech, but it argues that the infrastructure layer is still being built, suggesting that India’s payments ecosystem is on par with where it was in 2015.
