What will it take for India’s fintech infrastructure to go global?

Fintech infrastructure is the underlying system that lets people and businesses send, receive, verify, and track money. It includes payment software, databases, integrations, reliability tools, testing, and operational processes. It matters because payments must remain dependable as transaction volumes, users, and use cases grow.

PhonePe illustrates this approach. Its early architects created reusable libraries and engineering practices, built a site reliability engineering team, and adopted sharded databases. These choices helped the platform grow by nearly 100-1,000X without a large architectural refactor. Integrations also connect payment systems with merchants and other businesses.

Infrastructure must handle more than volume. It must manage failures, regional differences, unusual use cases, and demanding operating conditions. PhonePe emphasizes instrumentation, testing, quality assurance, and scale testing. As fintech companies move into cross-border payments, they will need infrastructure that can adapt to different markets instead of simply repeating domestic systems.

India’s international trade flows are enormous. The country exports goods and services worth approximately $850 billion each year and imports around $1 trillion. Both figures are growing. These flows create a large potential market for companies that help businesses move money across borders.

Yet fintech adoption remains limited. According to Movin Jain, less than 10% of these transactions are handled by fintech companies. Banks continue to manage most international payments. Skydo focuses specifically on business-to-business payments, where fintech adoption is even lower than in consumer payments.

This gap is the opportunity. Businesses may still be learning that fintech companies can help manage cross-border transactions. Jain says the immediate priority is building awareness of the category, not competing mainly on price. Greater adoption could follow as companies understand how fintech services address payment problems traditionally handled by banks.

Banks remain central because businesses have traditionally relied on them for cross-border payments. The article also points to limited fintech adoption and low awareness, especially in business-to-business transactions. Many companies have not yet recognized that fintech providers can address international payment problems.

Skydo is trying to change that by focusing on B2B payments. Its opportunity is not simply to offer a lower price. It is to show businesses how fintech companies can help manage cross-border transactions. The discussion also highlighted transparency, including clearer visibility into international payment costs.

The current reality is that banks still manage most of India’s cross-border trade payments, while fintech penetration remains below 10%. Jain believes the sector should first build awareness and category adoption. Competition between fintech providers may become more important later, after the market reaches much deeper penetration.

When a business cannot clearly see the exchange rate, foreign-exchange fees, and other charges, it cannot accurately predict how much money will arrive. The payment may therefore produce less usable revenue than expected. Unclear costs can also make pricing, budgeting, and profit calculations harder. The article does not provide a specific revenue figure or measured impact.

The mechanism is straightforward: the amount sent, the conversion rate, and the fees determine the final amount received. If those details are hidden or difficult to understand, the business may underestimate the cost of collecting payment internationally. That uncertainty is especially important for B2B transactions, where payment values can be substantial.

The panel identified transparency as an important need in cross-border payments. Skydo’s opportunity is to help businesses understand and manage these transactions more clearly. Better visibility could support more accurate financial decisions, although the article does not state a particular improvement in revenue or margins.

Skydo is helping move fintech beyond domestic payments by focusing on business-to-business cross-border transactions. Its founder, Movin Jain, sees a large opportunity because fintech adoption remains low and banks still handle most international trade payments. Skydo’s immediate task is to build awareness of what fintech providers can offer.

PhonePe represents the infrastructure and scale side of the shift. Srijon Biswas described systems that grew nearly 100-1,000X through early architectural choices, including sharded databases, SRE, testing, and strong engineering practices. PhonePe has also expanded its regulatory reach by receiving a UAE licence.

The companies face different but connected challenges. Skydo must persuade businesses to adopt fintech for cross-border payments. PhonePe must adapt its Indian payment infrastructure for international markets rather than copy it directly. Together, their roles show the shift from domestic scale toward global payment rails.

A company cannot simply copy its Indian payment system because markets differ in regulation, geography, payment use cases, merchant systems, and operating practices. PhonePe found this even within India. Merchants across states and cities used different systems, forcing the company to build multiple integrations rather than depend on one standard setup.

An abstraction layer, in general, separates common payment functions from local details. Shared logic can handle activities such as payment status and transaction processing, while country-specific modules handle local rules, currencies, integrations, and data requirements. This can reduce repeated changes when a company enters another market. The article does not describe a particular abstraction layer.

PhonePe’s UAE licence creates new opportunities but also new engineering challenges. Biswas said the company must adapt its infrastructure for international markets. The broader lesson is that global expansion requires flexible systems that manage local variation without losing reliable shared foundations.

Large payment systems need these tools because reliability failures can affect enormous transaction volumes. A system must distribute data and workload, detect problems quickly, test unusual conditions, and keep services operating. Capacity alone is not enough. Architecture and operational discipline matter just as much.

PhonePe adopted sharded database architecture from the outset and built its own site reliability engineering team. It also emphasized instrumentation, testing, quality assurance, and scale testing. Sharding divides data across systems, while monitoring reveals what those systems are doing. Testing helps expose failures before they become production incidents.

PhonePe’s experience shows why this foundation matters. Biswas recalled bugs that had appeared at another organization years earlier, yet became relevant at PhonePe’s scale. The company grew nearly 100-1,000X without a major architectural refactor. Future international expansion will add more diversity and edge cases, increasing the need for disciplined engineering.