India’s free digital payments revolution has transformed how money moves, but it has not changed how fintech companies generate profit. Now, Flipkart’s fintech arm, Super.money, is partnering with one of India’s top commercial banks, Kotak Mahindra Bank, to address this. The partnership bundles UPI payments, savings, and secured credit into a single account designed to turn user engagement into profit.
The partnership aims to issue about 2 million secured credit cards in the next 12 months, with roughly 60 percent going to first-time borrowers. The goal is to reach 5 million cards within 2 years. Super.money, which already serves 10 million active users, expects the Kotak alliance to contribute around 10 percent of its revenue next year as it works toward profitability by 2026, according to chief executive Prakash Sikaria.
India’s Unified Payments Interface, backed by the government, has made instant bank transfers free and ubiquitous, processing more than 19 billion transactions a month. This success, however, has left little room for fintechs to profit because regulators do not allow the merchant fees that typically fund rewards and credit programs. Super.money’s strategy uses a secured card and savings account to reintroduce incentives, offering a template for building viable business models on top of no-fee payment systems.
The company does not view UPI as just a payment solution. Instead, it uses UPI to build a cross-financial services platform where UPI is the tool for acquiring and retaining customers.
Launched in June 2024 as Walmart-owned Flipkart’s latest fintech venture after spinning off PhonePe, Super.money is already generating about 3 million dollars in monthly revenue, with an annualized run rate of roughly 36 million dollars. The fintech app has emerged as one of India’s top five UPI platforms, processing more than 200 million transactions a month for four straight months through August.
Around 80 percent of Super.money’s revenue comes from personal loans, 10 percent from credit cards, and the remaining 10 percent from payment products like bill payments and recharges. The fintech says it retains roughly 85 percent of its users, with 60 to 70 percent of its transactions coming from customers under 30.
Sikaria explained that Super.money’s business model rests on two monetization engines. The first is the financial-services engine, which includes personal loans, cards, and deposits. The second is commerce. The idea is to bring a Klarna-style pay-in-three model on top of commerce, creating a financial overlay that lets customers buy now and pay later within the Super.money ecosystem.
The partnership with Kotak Mahindra Bank, India’s fourth-largest lender by market capitalization, gives Super.money access to a large, regulated banking infrastructure. This follows an earlier tie-up with Utkarsh Small Finance Bank and marks the fintech’s move into mainstream retail banking.
The collaboration introduces a 3 in 1 Super Account, which combines a savings account, UPI payments, and a fixed-deposit-backed secured credit card aimed at expanding credit access for first-time borrowers.
To open a 3-in-1 Super Account, users need to make a fixed deposit of at least 1,000 rupees, or about 11 dollars. The account earns interest on the deposit and offers a cashback on every transaction. It also includes a UPI-on-credit feature, which is a credit line backed by the deposit that does not require any income proof.
Sikaria stated that secured cards were chosen as the anchor product because they fit within India’s zero-fee UPI system while still allowing for the rewards and cashbacks that the platform was never designed to support. The focus is on users who have a higher propensity to engage with their products. UPI is the core engagement and acquisition tool, but the company does not aim to serve users who are not interested in its financial services.
The partnership with Kotak Mahindra Bank comes soon after Super.money teamed up with SoftBank-backed Juspay to launch a one-click checkout experience for online merchants, aimed primarily at direct-to-consumer brands. About 1,000 merchants already use this solution, and Super.money plans to expand that network through partnerships with more D2C players and other companies within the Flipkart group.
The secured card earns merchant discount revenue on transactions, and that revenue funds the cashback. There is also a standard acquisition fee charged to the partner bank, which serves as another source of monetization for Super.money.
The company plans to issue about 200,000 secured cards a month under its partnership with Kotak before expanding to other banks.
So far, Flipkart has invested about 50 million dollars in Super.money to start its operations. As the business scales, the fintech plans to raise additional capital, possibly from external investors. The company needs more capital for at least a couple of years and will soon start formulating its capital-raise strategy. Sikaria declined to specify if the next round would come from Flipkart or outside investors but noted inbound interest from many investors.
For now, the company is keeping its cash burn low, describing its current monthly burn as a low single-digit million number. Super.money is deliberately focusing on India’s top 10 to 30 million users rather than competing with mass-market payment players like Google Pay or PhonePe that target hundreds of millions. The goal is to build a formidable secured card franchise with a profitable performance for the company, the bank, and its customers.