Full story and sources: https://productgrowth.in/news/2026-09-13

NPCI's profit fell 32% while revenue climbed 22% to Rs 4,240 Cr — scaling volume no longer guarantees scaling margins. 🎙️

Margin compression matters more than topline growth in payments infrastructure. NPCI is not a struggling business — it processed an enormous volume increase — yet rising operational and tax costs swallowed the gains. The gap between revenue and profit is the real story for anyone building on or beside UPI rails.

If you are building payments infrastructure or selling into it, your unit economics model needs a cost-of-scale line from day one. The NPCI numbers prove that transaction volume growth is not a proxy for financial health.

Today's brief also covers Anthropic's call for AI safety audits, Zomato's new COD fee, BFSI firms shifting from AI pilots to measurable returns, and Karnataka's Rs 25 crore startup pilot fund.

Listen: https://productgrowth.in/news/2026-09-13/

#IndianFintech #PaymentsInfrastructure #ProductGrowth

Arjun and Meera break down the day in Indian product, startups and tech — what happened, the number that matters, and why it matters if you’re building here.

Listen in 21 languages at productgrowth.in/podcast