The Painted Stork

[#77] The future of fintech in India: How do we approach monetization in the age of DPI?

With DPI in India heating up (UPI, and offerings such as AA, ONDC, ULI etc), core offerings being positioned as a "free good," what is the monetizable…

Nov 24 • 

Ambika Pande

6

[#76] From zero to live (Part 2): Testing Emergent’s “AI-built backend” promise (and hitting the limits)

Vibe coding using front end tools is just another word for fancy prototyping - setting up backend services is still very much a challenge, and we may be…

Nov 2 • 

Ambika Pande

 and 

Chinmay Shah

3

1

1

October 2025

[#75] The AI Money Movement Layer: MCP, ACP & TAP are launched but are autonomous payments really the future?

Protocols launched by OpenAI, Stripe, Visa and Google (AP2) suggest that autonomous payments are the future, but some protocols are mandates hiding…

Oct 18 • 

Ambika Pande

8

2

September 2025

[#74] Do all roads in fintech lead to license aggregation? (Part 6): Multi-license fintechs are driving profits and IPOs

India’s single PA license limits smaller players, while UK & Singapore use tiered licensing. Standalone players have razor thin margins, it's the…

Sep 22 • 

Ambika Pande

5

2

[#73] From zero to live: Building an AI powered app using Lovable, Cursor, Supabase, Google OAuth, & OpenAI (as a non developer)

Building an AI-powered app from scratch with 0 coding experience using Lovable, Cursor, Supabase & integrating 3rd-party tools: Ex - Google OAuth for…

Sep 12 • 

Ambika Pande

13

6

1

August 2025

[#72] UPI App Valuations: UPI App valuations seem to range between $60 - $100M depending on scale and a path to profitability

Rio Money (with 0 live txns but a tech stack set up) was acquired earlier this year for $2.5M, Kiwi with its recent fund raise seems to be valued around…

Aug 29 • 

Ambika Pande

4

6

[#71] Yes & Axis Bank: The banks powering India’s UPI flywheel

Behind the UPI App leaderboards, there are banks powering each leg of the UPI transaction. Yes Bank & Axis are leading the charge, as top choice of…

Aug 22 • 

Ambika Pande

 and 

Fareed Ahmad

10

6

1

[#70] Biometric authentication for payments is having its moment, but will it actually move the needle? (Spoiler: In India, probably not)

The marginal benefit of biometric auth in experience over PIN / OTP, issuer banks lethargy, 3rd party orchestration sign-offs and government repository…

Aug 5 • 

Ambika Pande

9

7

1

July 2025

[#69] Do all roads in fintech lead to license aggregation (Part 5): From payments to everything

From PA to NBFC, TPAP to PA-CB, every player B2B / B2C is chasing a full-stack strat to stay relevant, scale, and own the entire payments, credit & data…

Jul 28 • 

Ambika Pande

12

1

[#68] The UPI bottleneck: Full stack ambitions, zero MDR reality

UPI is evolving from just a method, to an experience, and full stack seems to be the way to win, with UPI Apps, and UPI switches being built / acquired…

Jul 14 • 

Ambika Pande

 and 

Fareed Ahmad

21

2

June 2025

[#67] The great fintech valuation correction: When IPOs loom, multiples shrink

Fintech funding seems to be back, but with a dose of realism. Recent funding sees multiples on par with global equivalents. Established fintechs need to…

Jun 18 • 

Ambika Pande

6

2

[#66] E-commerce to fintech: A proven path. Fintech to e-commerce: Still a question

TPAP as a service players such as Juspay / Razorpay provide UPI / fintech know how, but the "e-comm as a service" ONDC platform has not scaled to…

Jun 9 • 

Ambika Pande

6