At Global Fintech Fest 2026, PhonePe founder-CEO Sameer Nigam presented a comprehensive vision for the next decade of financial inclusion, emphasizing that "True progress isn't measured by how fast the top 10 per cent move; it is measured by whether we leave anyone behind." As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, Nigam highlighted how over the past decade, PhonePe has operated as a technology pioneer charting India's progress, with every product across their ecosystem thoughtfully crafted to remove friction from progress and ensure that financial security and growth belong to everyone. He emphasized that "Real financial inclusion was never about building a product based on socio-economic strata. It's about building one system, flexible enough to meet every Indian exactly where they are."
At Global Fintech Fest 2026, PhonePe founder-CEO Sameer Nigam presented an AI philosophy designed for India's massive user base, framing the company's approach around "whether we leave anyone behind" rather than just measuring progress by top performers. According to The Economic Times, Nigam's session focused on building AI that recedes into everyday financial tasks, moving from broad demographic cohorts to highly personalised experiences for every user. The approach centers on four pillars: AI infrastructure, engineering productivity, operational productivity and end-client value, with the goal of delivering a 'Bank Branch of One' for every user.
Addressing the critical hardware barriers that have historically locked over 20 crore feature phone users out of the digital economy, PhonePe has launched UPI 123Pay - a non-internet, SMS, IVR, missed-call, and voice-based technology stack that brings the complete power of UPI directly to feature phones. As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, over 8 lakh enabled devices have already been shipped in partnership with leading OEMs. Additionally, PhonePe has expanded UPI for travellers in countries like Singapore, the UAE, France, and Nepal, while enabling seamless payments for more than 35 million NRIs via NRE/NRO accounts. The company's UPI Circle product allows primary account holders to safely delegate spending to dependents, making digital payments a household habit.
Introducing the 'Sachetization Philosophy', PhonePe is turning heavy financial commitments into simple, everyday habits for daily-wage earners and small businesses, comparing it to the accessibility of a ₹2 shampoo sachet. The platform offers flagship innovations like the PhonePe Daily FD allowing users to start bank-grade fixed deposits with as little as ₹100 a day through UPI AutoPay, alongside daily Gold, Silver, and Mutual Fund SIPs that start at just ₹10. In credit innovation, PhonePe is using AI-driven underwriting to accelerate the transition from application to disbursal in approximately 2.5 minutes, while dismantling traditional credit gaps by using daily settlement history as a credit score for automated daily-repayment merchant loans. The company's Wish Credit Card helps first-time borrowers build credit starting with a simple fixed deposit, alongside premium offerings like RuPay Credit Cards on UPI in partnership with SBI and HDFC.
Expressing excitement about unlocking progress for the merchant ecosystem, PhonePe has introduced an integrated suite of intelligent tools aimed at driving scalable growth. The rebuilt PhonePe Business App serves as a gateway to hyperlocal online advertising, personalised market insights, and no-code payment setups, while the ecosystem includes SmartConnect & SmartStore, Data-driven CRM, loyalty engines, and predictive inventory planning to maximise Customer Lifetime Value. Physical Store Innovations include Smart Speakers and AI Audio Alerts, leveraging AI-driven voice synthesis to deliver personalised audio payment alerts in iconic celebrity voices. For payment gateway innovations, PhonePe features Smartpages, a no-code solution that creates AI-prompted payment pages in under 10 minutes, and an AI Integration Agent that collapses merchant setup times from weeks to minutes with zero errors. The company has also introduced CRISP - a tool providing users with real-time market clarity, while PhonePe Pulse Pro delivers hyper-local intelligence platform fueled by over 11 billion monthly transactions, delivering insights mapped down to a 40-square-meter cell to empower businesses and policymakers.
