The launch of UPI Autopay will create a new kind of startup that will help others adjust their strategies to make the most of their technology. Shifts occur when Indians spend more time and money on the internet.
Autopay adoption is agnostic in the sector. Between 2024 and 2025, startups from Edtech, Wellness, Health Tech, Fintech, Media and Entertainment raised nearly $7.6 billion from venture capital companies, according to Startup Datas Intelligence Platform Tracxn.
Companies that have adopted a subscription model or enabled UPI Autopay include content platforms such as Kuku FM and Pocket FM, as well as wellness platforms such as Edtechs such as SpeakX, Khare Class, and Seekho, Mental Health Startup Wysa, and Weight Loss and Nutrition Tracking Startup Healthime. “Where we need to make normal payments for entertainment and financial services, AutoPay is driving that back,” said Munish Vaid, vice president of global consulting firm Primus Partners.
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In 2025, India will gain over 900 million internet users. This is according to a 2024 report from the market research firm Kantar and the Internet and India Mobile Association. As a result, UPI Autopay adoption has also been set to increase. But it's nothing new to us. Indians always paid for TV channels, newspaper subscriptions, and even milk. “Autopay has opened people to subscriptions online. It's not a new market. It's an offline market that's now online.”
According to social media intelligence company Meltwater, Indians spend an average of seven hours a day accessing a variety of services and products on the Internet. Mobile devices account for 58% of this time.
Changes to business models
The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), launched in 2021, has introduced UPI Autopay. It is a recurring payment feature that allows users to set up e-mandarts, from power invoices to mutual fund systematic investment plans, and even OTT subscriptions. As a result, the startups have pivoted their business models. The subscription-first platform is priced for Indian consumers. “What UPI Autopay did is that it allowed people to pay repeatedly for what they wanted to pay,” Puri said.
According to data from the National Payments Corporation of India, which runs UPI, the volume of UPI Autopay from the top 10 limiter banks has doubled from 1673 million in May 2024 to 299 million, starting from 1673 million in May 2025, bringing UPI Autopay's trading volume from the top 10 limiter banks to almost 299 million. In contrast, this year alone, the volume of UPI transactions in May was 18,677 million; £25 trillion.
“We are pleased to announce that we are committed to providing a range of services and services to helping people with a range of services,” said Harsha Kumar, partner at Lightspeed India. The amount of UPI transactions has gone from 129% to 13,116 crores from a combined annual growth rate of 129%, from 92 crores in 2018.
For example, prior to UPI Autopay, consumers invest in mutual funds through a systematic investment plan (SIP) and do so through their accounts on the MF website. Essentially, Autopay makes it easier to set up SIPs for broker apps like Grow, Zerodha, Angelone.
Make your subscription affordable
Autopay reduces friction for both users and business. Traditional subscription systems use credit cards, a financial product that has little infiltrated in India. In comparison, UPI Autopay is mobile-first, low cost, and runs with a small ticket service. This year alone, 37 million people have registered for Auto Paymandate registrations.
English learning startup SpeakX uses a subscription model enabled by Autopay. “Due to low digital penetration, we were able to capture an untouched market. Access to people who want solutions is now possible to offer them at affordable prices.”
The company's products have seen considerable traction from low-income groups and Tier II and Tier III cities, primarily for this. £300-A-Month subscription model. Mittal argues that before Autopay could be realized, consumer companies had to be sales-driven to convince users to join the platform.
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“If I had to do SpeakX five years ago, my only option is to sell the package to people rather than subscriptions. As a result, my product prices are very different and out of reach of many Indians,” says Mittal.
SpeakX has raised up to $15 million in its largest Series B round on its personalized, AI-driven EDTech platform so far this year. Existing investor elevation capital has already been paid to the company. Other investors include Goodwater Capital, a consumer technology VC company, and Westbridge Capital, a global investment company.
Price support
Seekho is pivoted from the payment model to the monthly model every year. The company started at the same time that the Indian National Payment Corporation launched AutoPay in 2021. At the time, monetization was not a goal. By 2023, the company had pivoted to a monthly subscription led by Autopay. “It helped us to promote the retention of great users. For us, we saw it as an opportunity to ultimately build a subscription business like Netflix in India.
As a result of the switch, the company was able to raise prices. £99 per month before raising it £199 months. That's what Seekho used to bill users each year. Pivot is primarily because they realized that the company can continue to attract more users and spend less money. “The number of recurring subscribers has increased by three to four months since they moved into their monthly plans, but then there have been people returning.
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Seekho currently has 4 million users and claims it has 30-35% of its users in 12 months. Their market is spreading throughout India. From a revenue perspective, the company said they would make it. £At 40 crores per month, 85% of the user base pays customers. Choudhary talks about user interviews who said it, considering what they would request £Charge your phone and pay every month £Learning 200 is not a bad thing. “This is how people compare their spending to Seekho. They don't actually compare it to the OTT platform, but to newspapers and coaching classes where they pay to learn something.”
But there's still a long way to go.
Many complain that Autopay Mandate cancellations are difficult to find and users are losing money to things they don't want to continue paying.
Earlier this year, a letter was sent to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by “stricken users” and some of these startups claim unfair auto-disability practices. According to the letter, some of these apps did not offer users an easy way to cancel automatic debits and were instead forced to rely on UPI apps to cancel those. “In the end, builders learn how to build Autopay, and consumers learn how to manage Autopay,” says Kumar of Lightspeed India.
“But we're heading in the right direction.”
