The UPI Facelift, A Decade Of Rentomojo & More

UPI Gets An AI Makeover

UPI is undergoing its most significant transformation yet. The payment system is moving from a simple transaction layer to ‘intelligent commerce’. Now, NPCI’s AI agents can discover, decide, and complete purchases without much human intervention. But what’s this all about?

Peeking Into The Future: At GFF 2025, the NPCI piloted its agentic AI offering. An AI assistant powered by Gemini generated a recipe for 10 people, ordered ingredients from BigBasket, and completed payment using an HDFC credit card through Google Pay – all in real time, without user intervention beyond initial authorisation.

UPI breakthroughs that dominated the conversations at GFF 2025:

• Support for IoT devices like smartwatches, refrigerators, and connected cars to make autonomous UPI payments without a phone
• UPI Reserve Pay will now let a user “lock” a portion of their credit card limit for future use on UPI
• A new AI-led customer care system to streamline complaint resolution for UPI, powered by NPCI’s in-house small language model
• Launch of Banking Connect, a new system where all banks and payment gateways can connect through one common platform.

Beyond Screens & PINs: NPCI’s aforementioned launches at the glitzy event have ushered digital payments into the new era. Consumers can now complete small-value UPI transactions on wearable glasses by scanning QR codes and authenticating via voice. Then, there is on-device biometric authentication, which replaces PINs with fingerprint or face unlock.

From wearables and IoT devices making payments on their own to AI assistants handling everything from shopping to checkout, UPI’s evolution is reshaping how Indians will interact with money in the digital age.

However, the question is whether this leap towards automation will simplify everyday transactions or make them more complex. While you ponder, here is how NPCI has made its boldest move yet.

From The Editor’s Desk Rentomojo’s Decade-Long Ride To Profits

• Furniture rental startup Rentomojo has begun its IPO journey, appointing Motilal Oswal as one of its bankers for a mid-2026 IPO. If timelines hold, it could become India’s first rental-focussed startup to list on the D-Street.
• After turning profitable in FY23 with a net profit of INR 6 Cr, Rentomojo’s profits jumped to INR 22 Cr in FY24 and are projected to nearly double to INR 40 Cr in FY25 on INR 270 Cr revenue, signalling strong and sustainable growth.
• Backed by Chiratae, Accel and Bain, the company has scaled to 65 stores and 2.2 Lakh active subscribers. Yet, high metro dependence, rising EMI alternatives, and service quality concerns may test its resilience as it eyes the public markets.

India’s AI Funding Paradox

• Only 7% of investors recently surveyed by Inc42 are making AI a core focus of their portfolio, while 41% are allocating between 20% and 40% of their corpus to AI startups.
• While AI funding stood at $260 Mn in the first three quarters of 2025 versus $245 Mn in the whole of 2024, investors remain jittery due to long gestation periods.
• The numbers were especially pronounced in the just-concluded quarter. While global VC investments in AI reached $45 Bn in Q3, Indian ventures could lap up a mere $120 Mn, signalling a meagre share in the global AI investment landscape.

Apple Breaches Trump Wall For India

• The big tech exported a record $10 Bn (about INR 88,730 Cr) worth of iPhones from India in the first six months of FY26. The metric is up 75% from $5.71 Bn in the year-ago period.
• Apple has been fast-tracking India focus — building a parallel supply chain to cut its China dependence and tap India’s production-linked incentives, despite Trump’s earlier warning to Tim Cook against making iPhones here.
• In the company’s earnings call for the June quarter, Apple CEO Tim Cook said iPhone sales saw double-digit growth in India.

RBI’s Crypto Push

• The Reserve Bank of India has launched its retail sandbox for the digital rupee (e₹). With this, fintechs and startups can now access APIs, build prototypes, and test products in a secure, simulated environment.
• The central bank also rolled out a pilot for tokenised certificates of deposit (CDs) and unveiled plans for a Unified Markets Interface (UMI) to enable asset tokenisation and smart-contract-based settlements.
• RBI also said that its other platform, unified lending interface, has already connected 120 data sources, 58 lenders, and has sanctioned INR 1.7 Tn in loans since its 2023 pilot.

Google To Splurge $10 Bn On India Data Centre

• Google plans to invest $10 Bn to build a 1 GW data centre cluster across three campuses in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam, making it Asia’s largest such facility.
• The project — featuring submarine cables, cable landing stations, and metro fibre lines — is expected to be operational by July 2028, anchoring India’s ambitions to become a global digital and AI infrastructure hub.
• Google’s mega bet underscores India’s data-centre boom, where Reliance and OpenAI are already vying to build facilities to power the country’s AI and cloud ambitions.

Startups That Made The Cut For AWS’ GenAI Accelerator

• Amazon has selected three Indian-origin GenAI startups, namely Hyperbots, Smallest AI, and Stimuler, in the third cohort of its AWS Generative AI Accelerator.
• While Hyperbots helps businesses automate finance and accounting tasks with AI assistants, Smallest AI builds AI voice agents for enterprises. Stimular helps users practice spoken English via an AI app.
• As per Inc42 data, India is home to 150+ AI startups, which are building everything from large language models to use cases spanning and fintech and manufacturing.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight Can Flash Become A Trusted AI Companion For Online Shoppers?

Endless choices, influencer reviews, Reddit debates, and contradicting YouTube takes — online shopping today is less about convenience and more about cognitive overload. To make online shopping less cumbersome for shoppers, Flash AI is building AI-powered shopping assistants.

The Shoppers’ Paradise: Founded in 2022, Flash AI offers an AI bot that provides instant, AI-generated insights to help consumers make informed decisions. The startup aggregates data from various channels to generate a concise summary of a product’s pros and cons, along with real-time prices across stores.

Riding Ecommerce Boom: With a total user base of more than 2 Mn spanning over 100 countries, the Bengaluru-based startup aims to target billions of customers globally, who shop online every year. Beyond research, its AI assistant provides post-purchase convenience by tracking orders, refunds, warranties, and spending patterns in a single interface.

With ecommerce booming and consumers craving decision-support tools, can Flash AI become the intelligence layer for online shoppers?

Infographic Of The Day

Astrology in India is no longer limited to hand-drawn charts and neighbourhood astrologers. A new wave of spiritual tech startups is transforming the way millions seek guidance from the stars.

 

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