Parth Shah
on
Parth Shah
Register Valuer | CA | CPA | 15+ Years of Experiance
Parth Shah is the Founder and Team Leader of the company, bringing extensive expertise in business valuation and financial advisory.
Introduction
Fintech startup valuation in India today depends less on user growth and more on regulatory standing, revenue quality and unit economics. That shift is measurable. Razorpay filed its draft prospectus with SEBI in June 2026 targeting a valuation of roughly $5 to $6 billion, down from the $7.5 billion it commanded in its last private round.
The funding data tells the same story from a different angle. India’s fintech sector raised $2 billion in the first half of calendar 2026 across 106 rounds, a 42 per cent rise over H1 2025, but roughly 80 per cent of that money went to late-stage companies. More capital, fewer companies, tighter scrutiny.
For a founder raising a seed or Series A round in this market, a defensible valuation is no longer a negotiating convenience. It is a compliance requirement under the Companies Act 2013, the Income Tax Rules and FEMA, and it is the document your investor’s diligence team will attack first.
This guide covers the valuation methods that actually apply to Indian fintech companies, the KPIs investors benchmark against, how RBI licensing changes your multiple, and the statutory rules that govern the report itself.
Key Takeaways
- Fintech startup valuation is the process of estimating the fair market value of a technology-driven financial services company using revenue multiples, transaction volume metrics, discounted cash flow analysis or a blend of all three.
- Any valuation supporting a share issue to a non-resident investor must comply with the FEMA (Non-Debt Instruments) Rules 2019, which set a floor price below which the transaction cannot be priced.
- Valuations conducted under Section 247 of the Companies Act 2013 can only be signed by an IBBI Registered Valuer, and a Chartered Accountant without that registration cannot legally certify the report.
- RBI licensing status is a direct valuation driver in India: a fintech operating under its own NBFC or Payment Aggregator authorisation typically commands a higher multiple than an unlicensed platform dependent on a partner regulated entity.
- Private fintech revenue multiples have compressed significantly from 2021 peaks, with lending platforms and payments businesses now transacting in materially lower ranges than infrastructure or RegTech companies.
- Pre-revenue fintech startups are valued using qualitative frameworks such as the Berkus Method, Scorecard Method and Risk Factor Summation Method, calibrated to Indian ticket sizes rather than US dollar increments.
- The most common valuation error Indian fintech founders make is presenting Gross Transaction Value as revenue, which inflates the headline number and collapses under investor diligence.
- My Valuation provides IBBI-registered fintech startup valuation reports that are accepted by venture capital funds, statutory auditors, the Income Tax Department and the Reserve Bank of India.
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Book a Free ConsultationWhat Is a Fintech Startup?
A fintech startup is a company that uses technology to deliver, improve or automate financial services such as payments, lending, insurance, wealth management, or regulatory compliance.
In India, the definition matters for a practical reason: your regulatory classification determines which authority supervises you, and that classification directly affects your valuation. A payments company answers to the Reserve Bank of India under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007. A wealthtech platform answers to SEBI. An Insurtech answer to IRDAI.
Here is how India’s fintech landscape maps to its regulators.
India’s Fintech Segments and Their Regulators
| Segment | Typical Business Models | Primary Regulator | Key Authorization |
| Payments | Payment gateways, aggregators, UPI apps, wallets | RBI + NPCI | Payment Aggregator authorization under the PSS Act |
| Digital Lending | Consumer credit, MSME loans, BNPL, EMI products | RBI | NBFC registration, or LSP arrangement with a regulated entity |
| Wealthtech | Broking, mutual fund platforms, robo-advisory | SEBI | Broker, RIA or Investment Adviser registration |
| Insurtech | Digital insurance distribution, claims tech | IRDAI | Corporate Agent or Web Aggregator licence |
| Neobanking | Business banking layers over partner banks | RBI (indirect) | No standalone licence; operates via a partner bank |
| Account Aggregation | Consented financial data sharing | RBI | NBFC-AA licence under the 2021 Master Directions |
| RegTech | Compliance software, KYC, AML, audit tooling | Not directly regulated | Typically none |
RegTech and neobanking carry lower licensing burdens but weaker moats. Licensed lending and payments businesses carry heavier compliance costs and correspondingly stronger defensibility, which is exactly what a 2026 investor pays a premium for.
How Do You Value a Fintech Startup?
You value a fintech startup by selecting a method appropriate to its revenue stage, then cross-checking that output against a second, independent method.
No single method produces a defensible number on its own. A valuation report that relies solely on a revenue multiple will not survive an income tax assessment or a Series B diligence process. Professional valuers triangulate.
The methods fall into two groups.
General Valuation Methods Applicable to Fintech
1. What Is the Revenue Multiple Method?
The Revenue Multiple Method values a company by multiplying its annual revenue by a market-derived multiple observed in comparable transactions.
It is the fastest method and the most widely misapplied one in India.
Formula: Enterprise Value = Annual Revenue × Sector Revenue Multiple
Worked example (INR):
A Pune-based B2B payments infrastructure startup reports ₹18 crore in net revenue for FY 2025-26. Comparable Indian infrastructure transactions support a 6x multiple.
- Enterprise Value = ₹18 crore × 6 = ₹108 crore
Now the critical adjustment. If the same company had reported ₹450 crore in Total Payment Volume and applied the 6x multiple to that figure, the output would be ₹2,700 crore. That number is meaningless. TPV is money moving through the platform, not money the company earns.
Where founders go wrong: Applying multiples to GMV, TPV or Assets Under Management instead of net take-rate revenue. Every serious investor normalizes this in the first diligence call.
Best for: Post-revenue fintechs with at least four quarters of consistent, auditable revenue. Not suitable for: Pre-revenue platforms, or companies where over 40 per cent of revenue comes from a single client.
2. What Is the EBITDA Multiple Method?
The EBITDA Multiple Method values a company by multiplying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization by a sector-specific multiple.
Private fintech EBITDA multiples currently range from roughly 9.7x to 17.5x depending on subsector and growth rate, with RegTech and Wealth Tech businesses commanding the upper end because of high retention and recurring revenue.
Worked example (INR):
A Chennai Insurtech distributor posts ₹6.2 crore EBITDA in FY 2025-26 with 30 per cent year-on-year growth. Applying a 12x multiple gives an enterprise value of ₹74.4 crore.
A meaningful shift through 2025 and 2026 is that many fintechs previously valued on revenue are now being assessed on EBITDA as growth rates slow and buyers demand demonstrated cash generation.
Best for: Profitable fintechs, typically with revenue above ₹40 crore. Not suitable for: Loss-making growth-stage platforms, which is most of the Indian early-stage market.
3. What Is the Discounted Cash Flow Method for Fintech?
The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Method estimates value by projecting future free cash flows and discounting them to present value using a risk-adjusted rate, typically the Weighted Average Cost of Capital.
DCF carries specific weight in India because Rule 11UA of the Income Tax Rules 1962 recognises it as a permitted method for determining the fair market value of unquoted equity shares.
Steps:
- Project free cash flows for five years, built bottom-up from transaction volume, take rate and cost per transaction.
- Determine the discount rate. Indian early-stage fintech valuations typically use a WACC in the 18 to 30 per cent band, reflecting execution and regulatory risk.
- Calculate terminal value using the Gordon Growth model or an exit multiple.
- Discount all cash flows and terminal value to present value.
- Stress-test. Terminal value often represents 60 to 80 per cent of total DCF output, so a one percentage point change in terminal growth can move the valuation materially.
Fintech-specific caution: For lending fintechs, cash flow projections must model credit loss provisioning explicitly. A DCF that ignores expected credit loss under Ind AS 109 will overstate value and will be rejected by any competent auditor.
Fintech-Specific Valuation Methods
4. GMV, TPV and Transaction-Based Valuation
Transaction-based valuation values a fintech platform as a multiple of the volume or value of transactions it processes, adjusted for take rate.
This applies to payment aggregators, marketplace lenders and exchange platforms where revenue is a thin slice of a very large flow.
Worked example:
A UPI-first merchant payments startup processes ₹2,400 crore in annual TPV at a 0.28 per cent net take rate.
- Net revenue = ₹2,400 crore × 0.28% = ₹6.72 crore
- At a 5x revenue multiple: ₹33.6 crore enterprise value
The take rate is the entire argument. A fintech that can defend take-rate expansion, from 0.28 to 0.45 per cent through value-added services, is making a valuation case. A fintech that can only show volume growth at a flat take rate is competing on price.
5. Adjusted Revenue Multiple for Subscription Fintech
This method applies an enterprise value to annual recurring revenue multiple, used for SaaS-model fintechs such as RegTech, treasury software and lending-as-a-service platforms.
The adjustment applies quality weighting: recurring subscription revenue is valued at a higher multiple than one-time implementation or transaction revenue from the same company. A RegTech firm earning ₹10 crore, split ₹7 crore recurring and ₹3 crore implementation, is not valued at a single blended multiple.
6. Berkus Method (Pre-Revenue)
The Berkus Method assigns a monetary value to each of five risk-reduction milestones, producing a pre-money valuation for a startup with no revenue history.
Applied to Indian seed-stage ticket sizes, each milestone typically carries ₹40 lakh to ₹1 crore:
- Sound business idea and validated problem
- Working prototype or live product
- Quality of the founding team
- Strategic relationships, including a bank or NBFC partner
- Early product rollout or first revenue
For a fintech specifically, “strategic relationships” is where the real value sits. A signed sponsor bank agreement or an NBFC lending partnership is a hard asset in an Indian fintech cap table.
7. Scorecard Method (Pre-Revenue)
The Scorecard Method benchmarks a startup against the average pre-money valuation of comparable funded startups in the same region and sector, then adjusts using weighted criteria.
Typical weighting for Indian fintech: management team 30 per cent, market opportunity 25 per cent, product and technology 15 per cent, competitive environment 10 per cent, sales and partnerships 10 per cent, regulatory readiness 10 per cent.
That last criterion is India-specific and non-negotiable. Two identical lending startups, one with an NBFC licence application in progress and one without, do not carry the same score.
8. Risk Factor Summation Method
The Risk Factor Summation Method starts from a base pre-money valuation and adjusts it up or down across twelve defined risk categories.
Each factor is scored from very positive to very negative, and each step adjusts the base valuation by a fixed increment. Note: The commonly cited $250,000 increment is a US-market convention. For Indian seed-stage fintech deals, valuers typically calibrate this to ₹50 lakh to ₹1 crore per step, matched to prevailing local round sizes.
The twelve risk factors include management, stage of business, legislation and regulatory risk, manufacturing or technology risk, sales and marketing risk, funding risk, competition, litigation and international risk.
For Indian fintech, regulatory risk is weighted heavier than in almost any other sector.
Which Valuation Method Should a Fintech Startup Use?
Use this table to match your stage and model to the right primary method.
| Stage / Model | Primary Method | Cross-Check Method | Typical Indicative Range | My Valuation Tip |
| Pre-revenue, idea stage | Berkus Method | Scorecard Method | ₹2 crore to ₹8 crore | Investors discount heavily without a live product; get to MVP before raising |
| Pre-revenue, live product | Scorecard Method | Risk Factor Summation | ₹5 crore to ₹20 crore | A signed bank or NBFC partnership is your strongest valuation lever |
| Early revenue payments / lending | Revenue Multiple (net take rate) | Transaction-Based | 3x to 6x net revenue | Never apply a multiple to TPV or GMV; use net revenue only |
| Subscription RegTech / SaaS fintech | EV / ARR Multiple | DCF | 6x to 12x ARR | Separate recurring from implementation revenue before applying multiples |
| Profitable, scaled fintech | EBITDA Multiple | DCF | 9x to 17x EBITDA | Normalise EBITDA for one-time ESOP and restructuring charges |
| Any stage, regulatory filing | DCF or NAV under Rule 11UA | Market Approach | Method prescribed by statute | The method is not a choice; the applicable rule dictates it |
Stage determines your primary method, but Indian regulatory purpose can override your commercial preference entirely. A valuation for investor negotiation and a valuation for a Rule 11UA tax filing can legitimately produce different numbers, computed on different bases, for the same company on the same date.
What Regulations Govern Fintech Startup Valuation in India?
Fintech startup valuation in India is governed by four separate statutory frameworks, and most funding rounds trigger more than one simultaneously.
This is the single biggest gap in most fintech valuation content, and it is where founders lose deals.
Section 247 of the Companies Act 2013
As per Section 247 of the Companies Act 2013, any valuation of shares, securities or assets required under the Act must be conducted by a Registered Valuer registered with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).
This is triggered by:
- Preferential allotment of shares under Section 62(1)(c)
- Private placement under Section 42
- Swap ratio determination in a merger or amalgamation under Sections 230 to 232
- Issue of sweat equity shares
- Non-cash transactions involving directors under Section 192
A Chartered Accountant without IBBI registration cannot sign these reports. The registration is a hard legal gate, not a credential preference.
Rule 11UA of the Income Tax Rules 1962
Rule 11UA prescribes how the fair market value of unquoted equity shares is determined for income tax purposes, including the Net Asset Value and Discounted Cash Flow methods.
Two points matter for 2026 fintech founders:
First, angel tax is gone but valuation is not. Section 56(2)(viib) was abolished for shares issued on or after 1 April 2025. That removed one tax exposure. It did not remove the valuation requirement, because Section 50CA still applies to transfers of unquoted shares below fair market value.
Second, non-resident investors have expanded method options. Rule 11UA was amended to permit five additional methods where consideration is received from a non-resident: the Probability Weighted Expected Return Method (PWERM), Option Pricing Method (OPM), Comparable Company Multiple Method, Replacement Cost Method and Comparable Transaction Multiple Method.
For a fintech raising from a Singapore or US fund with a CCPS structure carrying liquidation preference, PWERM and OPM are often the only methods that produce a defensible per-share number.
FEMA (Non-Debt Instruments) Rules 2019
Under the FEMA (Non-Debt Instruments) Rules 2019, shares issued to a person resident outside India must be priced at or above fair market value, determined using an internationally accepted pricing methodology on an arm’s length basis.
This establishes a floor price. You may issue above it. You may never issue below it. For a fintech with foreign VC participation, which describes most Indian fintechs raising Series A and beyond, this is the binding constraint.
The certificate must be issued by a Chartered Accountant, a SEBI-registered Category I Merchant Banker or a practicing Cost Accountant, depending on the transaction type.
RBI Licensing and Sectoral Compliance
RBI regulation does not directly prescribe a valuation method, but it materially affects value.
The RBI issued the Digital Lending Directions, 2025 on 8 May 2025, a single consolidated framework replacing all earlier guidelines on digital lending, the default loss guarantee framework and outsourcing instructions for digital channels. The multi-lender Lending Service Provider framework became operational on 1 November 2025.
The framework mandates that all loan disbursals flow directly into the borrower’s bank account, bypassing the Lending Service Provider entirely, alongside transparent aggregator disclosures and a dedicated Key Fact Statement.
Payment aggregators face a parallel tightening. Payment aggregators and gateways require RBI authorization under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act and must comply with the Master Direction on Payment Aggregators released in September 2025.
Why this belongs in a valuation discussion: A digital lending startup that has not remediated its disbursal flows carries a quantifiable regulatory contingency. A competent valuer will either apply a risk discount to the enterprise value or model a remediation cost line. An investor’s diligence team certainly will.
Raising from a Foreign Fund or Issuing CCPS with Liquidation Preference?
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Explore Startup Valuation ServicesWhat Is the Fintech Startup Valuation Process?
The fintech valuation process runs in seven stages, from purpose definition through to a signed, defensible report.
Step 1: Define the Valuation Purpose
The purpose determines the method, the standard of value and the report format. A valuation for a Series A negotiation, a Rule 11UA tax filing, an ESOP grant under Ind AS 102 and an FEMA floor price certificate are four different engagements.
Step 2: Assess Regulatory Standing
For fintech specifically, this comes before financial analysis. What licences does the company hold? What is pending? Are there RBI observations, show-cause notices or partner-bank audit findings outstanding?
Step 3: Understand the Business Model and Unit Economics
Establish the revenue engine precisely: take rate, net interest margin, subscription ARR or commission. Separate gross flow from net revenue. This is where most fintech valuations are won or lost.
Step 4: Benchmark Market Position
Identify Indian comparables, recent funding rounds in the same sub-sector, and observed transaction multiples. Cross-border comparables require a country risk premium adjustment.
Step 5: Analyze Financial Performance and Cohorts
Review audited financials, monthly MIS, cohort retention and, for lending businesses, the full delinquency waterfall including 30, 60 and 90-day past due buckets.
Step 6: Apply and Reconcile Methods
Run the primary method, cross-check with a second, and reconcile the difference in writing. An unexplained gap between two methods is the first thing a diligence team will probe.
Step 7: Issue the Report
The report documents every assumption, cites the applicable statutory provision, and where required under Section 247, carries the signature and registration number of an IBBI Registered Valuer.
Which KPIs Drive Fintech Startup Valuation?
Investors benchmark Indian fintech startups against a defined set of operating metrics, and each one maps to a valuation input.
| KPI | What It Measures | Healthy Indian Benchmark | Valuation Impact |
| LTV / CAC Ratio | Return on acquisition spend | 3x or above | Directly supports revenue multiple expansion |
| CAC Payback Period | Months to recover acquisition cost | Under 12 months | Below 12 months signals capital efficiency |
| Monthly Churn | Customer attrition rate | Under 3% for B2B, under 6% for B2C | High churn caps terminal growth in DCF |
| Net Take Rate | Revenue as % of transaction value | Varies: 0.2% to 2% by segment | The core driver of transaction-based value |
| Net Interest Margin | Lending spread after cost of funds | 6% to 12% for digital lenders | Primary profitability metric for credit fintechs |
| GNPA / 90+ DPD | Credit quality for lenders | Under 4% for unsecured retail | Elevated delinquency triggers steep discounts |
| Rule of 40 | Growth rate + EBITDA margin | 40 or above | The single most cited SaaS-fintech screen |
| Burn Multiple | Net burn ÷ net new ARR | Under 2x | Directly determines runway and round pricing |
| Gross Margin | Revenue less direct cost of service | 60%+ for software, 25%+ for payments | Separates a software multiple from a services multiple |
| Regulatory Compliance Standing | Licence status and open observations | Clean, licensed | Unlicensed dependency is a valuation discount |
In 2026, LTV/CAC, burn multiple and credit quality carry more weight with Indian investors than raw user counts. Absolute user numbers without monetization evidence no longer support a premium multiple.
What Factors Most Affect Fintech Valuation in India?
Six factors drive the majority of valuation variance between two otherwise similar Indian fintech startups.
1. Regulatory licence status. A company operating on its own NBFC or Payment Aggregator authorization carries a structural moat. A company dependent on a single partner regulated entity carries concentration risk that a valuer must discount.
2. Revenue quality and concentration. Recurring revenue outvalues transaction revenue. Diversified revenue outvalues a book where one client contributes 40 per cent.
3. Unit economics. For founders considering a future IPO, demonstrating clear unit economics and a path to profitability within 18 to 24 months has become a table-stakes requirement.
4. Data and technology assets. Proprietary underwriting models, alternative credit scoring engines and India Stack integrations built on Account Aggregator rails are valuable intangibles. Under Ind AS 38, these may require separate identification and valuation in an acquisition, which is where a formal Purchase Price Allocation becomes necessary.
5. Capital structure complexity. Most Indian fintechs raise through CCPS or CCDs carrying liquidation preferences and anti-dilution rights. The headline post-money number does not reflect what common equity is actually worth. Allocating enterprise value across share classes requires OPM or PWERM.
6. Market and competitive position. In payments particularly, take-rate compression from competition is a structural headwind that must be modelled into the forecast rather than assumed away.
Do GIFT City Benefits Affect Fintech Valuation?
GIFT City, India’s International Financial Services Centre, offers regulatory and tax advantages that can be modelled directly into a fintech valuation.
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) acts as a unified regulator, replacing the multi-regulator navigation required onshore. For a fintech valuation, the tangible effects are:
- Regulatory simplification: A single authority reduces licensing timelines and compliance overhead, which lowers projected operating expense.
- Tax incentives: Available concessions, including GST exemptions on services within the IFSC and stamp duty relief on certain transactions, improve projected after-tax cash flows.
- Regulatory sandbox: IFSCA’s sandbox framework allows product testing with defined regulatory relaxation, shortening time to revenue.
- Cross-border access: Simplified structuring for international capital and clients expands the addressable market assumption in a DCF.
- Global fund proximity: Access to offshore investors and international banking units strengthens the funding assumption in the model.
GIFT City advantages should be modelled as quantified cash flow adjustments, not applied as a general valuation premium. A valuer who adds a “GIFT City uplift” without arithmetic behind it produces a report that will not withstand scrutiny.
How Do You Increase Your Fintech Startup’s Valuation?
You increase fintech valuation by improving the specific inputs a valuer and an investor actually model, not by growing headline metrics.
Move from gross flow to net revenue. Report and grow net take-rate revenue. A founder who presents TPV as the headline is signaling that net revenue is not the stronger number.
Secure your own regulatory authorization. Moving from a partner-dependent LSP model to your own NBFC registration removes concentration risk and typically supports a higher multiple.
Prove cohort retention. Twelve months of cohort data showing stable or expanding revenue per customer is worth more in a negotiation than a 12-month user growth chart.
Fix the credit book before raising. For lending fintechs, a clean 90+ DPD position going into diligence is worth more than an extra quarter of disbursal growth.
Clean the cap table. Undocumented SAFEs, unvalued ESOP grants and inconsistent CCPS terms create diligence friction that translates into price reduction. Structured ESOP valuation under Ind AS 102 removes a standard diligence objection.
Get the valuation done before the term sheet, not after. A founder who walks into a negotiation with an independent IBBI-registered valuation anchors the conversation. A founder who commissions one afterwards is documenting someone else’s number.
Real-World Illustration: Valuing a Series A Digital Lending Startup
Consider a Bengaluru-based digital lending startup approaching a Series A round in FY 2026-27.
Position: Operating as an LSP for two NBFC partners. Annual disbursals of ₹310 crore. Net revenue of ₹22 crore from a blended 7.1 per cent take on disbursals. EBITDA negative at ₹4 crore. 90+ DPD at 3.2 per cent. NBFC licence application filed, approval pending.
Method one, Revenue Multiple: Indian digital lending comparables support 3x to 4x net revenue. At 3.5x, enterprise value is ₹77 crore.
Method two, DCF: Five-year projection with disbursal growth tapering from 45 per cent to 18 per cent, expected credit loss provisioned under Ind AS 109, WACC at 24 per cent, terminal growth at 5 per cent. Output: ₹94 crore.
Reconciliation and adjustments:
- Pending NBFC licence: a positive contingency, but not yet realised. The valuer models it as a probability-weighted scenario rather than assuming approval.
- LSP concentration across only two regulated entities: a discount applies for partner dependency.
- Reconciled indicative enterprise value: ₹80 crore to ₹88 crore
What the investor challenges first: Not the multiple. The 90+ DPD trajectory and whether the take rate holds once the company operates on its own balance sheet. That is the conversation the valuation report has to answer in advance.
Conclusion
Fintech startup valuation in India has moved decisively from narrative to arithmetic. The 2026 market rewards founders who can defend a take rate, evidence cohort retention, demonstrate clean credit quality and produce a valuation report that stands up to a tax officer, an auditor and an investor’s diligence team in the same week.
My Valuation is an IBBI-registered valuation firm led by CA Parth Shah (FCA, CPA USA, IBBI Registered Valuer for Securities or Financial Assets), delivering fintech startup valuation, ESOP valuation, 409A valuation and complex instrument valuation for founders across India. Clients have raised over ₹1,500 crore using our reports, with a 95 per cent-plus acceptance rate from VC and PE funds without material adjustment.
If you are pricing a round, structuring CCPS, or need a FEMA-compliant floor price certificate, get the number right before it becomes a negotiation.
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Request a Free FinTech Valuation ConsultationFrequently Asked Questions
1. How much does a fintech startup valuation cost in India?
Fintech startup valuation fees in India typically range from ₹40,000 to ₹3,00,000 depending on complexity, instrument structure and regulatory purpose. A single-purpose Rule 11UA certificate sits at the lower end, while a multi-class waterfall allocation using OPM or PWERM sits at the upper end.
2. Is a valuation report mandatory for fintech fundraising in India?
Yes, in most cases. A preferential allotment under Section 62(1)(c) of the Companies Act 2013 requires a report from an IBBI Registered Valuer, and any issue to a non-resident investor requires FEMA floor price certification.
3. Can a regular Chartered Accountant sign a fintech valuation report?
Not for valuations required under the Companies Act 2013. Section 247 restricts these to Registered Valuers registered with IBBI. A Chartered Accountant without IBBI registration can certify only specific FEMA and Income Tax valuations where the rules permit it.
4. Does angel tax abolition mean fintech startups no longer need valuations?
No. Section 56(2)(viib) was abolished for shares issued on or after 1 April 2025, but Section 50CA, Rule 11UA, FEMA floor pricing and Section 247 all remain in force. The valuation requirement survived the tax it was originally associated with.
5. Why is my fintech’s valuation lower than my GMV or TPV suggests?
Because GMV and TPV are transaction flow, not company revenue. A valuer applies multiples to net take-rate revenue, which is typically a fraction of one per cent to two per cent of the flow you process.
6. How does an RBI licence affect fintech valuation?
Holding your own NBFC or Payment Aggregator authorization generally supports a higher multiple by removing dependency on a partner regulated entity. Operating as an unlicensed Lending Service Provider concentrates regulatory risk with your partner, and valuers discount for it.
7. How long does a fintech startup valuation take?
A standard fintech valuation report typically takes five to seven business days once financial data is provided. My Valuation delivers preliminary valuations in as little as five business days and full reports within ten to fourteen days.
