What Kissht Taught Us: Vertex Growth's Lessons from India's First New-Age Fintech IPO

On 8 May 2026, OnEMI Technology Solutions (parent of Kissht and its NBFC subsidiary Si Creva Capital) listed on the NSE and BSE at a premium to its issue price, becoming the first new-age fintech lender to go public in India. It concludes a seven-year arc that began with our decision in 2019 to pass on the company.

An Initial Pass in 2019

We first met Kissht's founding team in Mumbai in 2019, our debut year of investing the Vertex Growth fund. We travelled with them into smaller Indian cities, observed their underwriting and collection in practice, and passed.

Our concern was the segment, not the team. Unsecured digital lending was running hot across India and Southeast Asia, and we were uncertain how much of the growth reflected real underwriting versus momentum.

“What had been a thesis in 2019 was a track record by 2021.”

When COVID hit, the segment dipped briefly and then rebounded from 2020 onwards. We watched from the outside.

What Changed by 2021

Three things tipped us when we re-engaged.

First, the founders. Krishnan and Ranvir came out of McKinsey's financial institutions practice in India, advising regulators, banks, and NBFCs before becoming operators.

They had built not just an underwriting engine but an equally rigorous collection system, the difference between a lending business that compounds and one that breaks.

Second, the platform. By 2021, Kissht's origination, underwriting, and collection had been validated in operation across pre-COVID, COVID, and post-COVID conditions.

Third, an external window. Geopolitical tensions between India and China prompted the Indian government to push Chinese capital out of regulated sectors, including finance.

“We led a transaction north of US$60 million, the single largest investment Vertex Growth had made out of two funds at that point.”

We led a transaction north of US$60 million, with meaningful secondary alongside the primary issue, the single largest investment Vertex Growth had made out of two funds at that point.

The Market and the Discipline It Demands

The opportunity is structurally large. BCG projects India's digital lending volume will approach US$1 trillion within five years, from roughly US$110 billion today.

NITI Aayog estimates only 19% of MSME credit demand is met formally, leaving around INR 80 lakh crore unmet.

TransUnion CIBIL data shows new-to-credit borrowers, once approved, are sticky: one in three takes a second product within twelve months.

The challenge has never been demand. It is the discipline to underwrite it profitably and collect on it without harm.

“The market can be served well and profitably at scale, but only by operators willing to do the unglamorous work.”

Banks have stepped back because the unit economics are difficult, and the vacuum is filled by the moneylender.

Kissht has shown the market can be served well and profitably at scale, but only by operators willing to do the unglamorous work: calibrate the credit model, build the collection workflow before it is needed, and treat the systems as the product.

Navigating the 2023 to 2025 Regulatory Cycle

The hardest stretch had nothing to do with the company.

In November 2023, the Reserve Bank of India raised the risk weight on consumer credit exposures of banks and NBFCs by 25 percentage points to 125%, citing the acceleration in unsecured lending.

Capital partners pulled back. The question was no longer growth, but whether the category would be allowed to exist at scale.

Kissht had begun shifting its mix early, well before competitors, from sub-one-month loans into longer tenors and into secured, asset-backed lending.

“What looked like cautious strategy was, in hindsight, survival.”

The pressure also cleaned the segment. In February 2025, the RBI partially rolled back the 2023 increase, and the companies that came through were structurally better than those that had entered.

What the Listing Validates

OnEMI Technology Solutions priced its IPO at INR 171 per share, raising INR 926 crore at a market capitalisation of approximately INR 2,900 crore.

The IPO was 9 times oversubscribed. The shares opened at INR 190 on listing day and traded up to close at INR 210.

Given Kissht’s strong financial performance, achieving FY25 revenue of INR 1352 crore (US$160M) with a 12% net margin and continued growth projected, the business remains well-positioned.

“The listing validates that real value can be built in this segment.”

Kissht is the first new-age fintech lender to list in India.

The listing validates that real value can be built in this segment, and that across emerging Asia there is structural demand for alternative financing the banks cannot or will not meet.

James Lee is General Partner at Vertex Growth, where he focuses on growth-stage technology investments across emerging markets. He led Vertex Growth’s investment in Kissht and has worked closely with the company through multiple market and regulatory cycles.