OneStack raises Rs 12.5 crore to put co-op banks on UPI
Mumbai fintech infrastructure startup OneStack raised Rs 12.5 crore to help cooperative banks run their own UPI and core banking. What the round means.
OneStack, a Mumbai fintech infrastructure startup that supplies technology to cooperative banks, has raised Rs 12.5 crore, about $1.5 million, from a new investor, Shepherd's Hill, and existing backers Pentathlon Ventures and AVNM Ventures, Entrackr reported on 4 November 2026. The round is small by startup standards, but it targets a part of banking that large fintech companies mostly ignore: the hundreds of state and district cooperative banks that serve farmers and small towns. This briefing rests on the Entrackr report alone, and the company's own claims in it have not been independently checked.
What was announced
The company has now raised Rs 45 crore across four rounds, Entrackr reports. Its previous round was a $2 million Series A in March 2025 led by Pentathlon Ventures, with Yatra Angel Network, 100Unicorns and Venture Catalysts taking part. Subtracting this round from the total implies about Rs 32.5 crore raised before it, though that is a calculation from the report, not a figure the company gave.
Entrackr says the proceeds will go to expanding among cooperative banks and non-bank lenders (NBFCs), and to product development in payments, core banking and regulatory compliance. It also says OneStack plans to extend its platform to NBFCs with customer-verification and fraud-reporting tools. The company's valuation, revenue and profit were not disclosed. That matters: without revenue or a valuation, it is not possible to say how large the business is or how the round was priced.
What OneStack sells, in plain English
Think of a small cooperative bank as a shop that wants to sell online but cannot afford to build its own website, payment system and security checks. OneStack is the supplier that provides all of those as a ready-made package. Its platform, according to the report, includes mobile banking, issuing and acquiring of UPI payments, QR payments, debit card management and a core banking system called OneCBS.
A core banking system is the software that keeps the ledger: accounts, deposits, loans and transactions. Replacing it is expensive and risky, which is why many small banks stay on old systems. UPI "issuing" means the bank lets its own customers pay through UPI from their accounts; "acquiring" means the bank signs up shops and collects payments for them. Issuing and acquiring are what the large private banks and wallet apps do at scale.
The report highlights one feature in particular. Cooperative banks on the platform can act as UPI issuers and acquirers directly with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under their own bank handles, keeping the customer relationship, the transaction data and the merchant discount rate (MDR) revenue. MDR is the fee a merchant pays on a payment. The report's framing implies that, without such a setup, a small bank that reaches UPI through a larger partner may not own that data or fee. The claim that OneStack lets small banks keep these is the company's, as relayed by Entrackr.
The market it is chasing
The report cites the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development's (NABARD) 2024-25 annual report, which lists 34 state cooperative banks and 351 district central cooperative banks (DCCBs), with nearly 15,900 branches as of March 2025. These are the banks that lend to farmers and village cooperatives and that, for many rural customers, are the only nearby branch. The report also names non-scheduled urban cooperative banks as a customer group.
OneStack says it serves more than 200 banks across state cooperative banks, DCCBs and non-scheduled urban cooperative banks. If that is accurate, it is a large share of a market of a few hundred state and district banks, plus the urban cooperative banks, although the report does not say how many of the 200 are live on UPI. The size of the business therefore turns on how many of those banks actually pay for the UPI and core banking modules. The report also lists compliance credentials the company says it holds, including integration with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Aadhaar authentication provider status, eKYC Setu integration and RuPay debit card issuance certification.
The company also names a partnership with a large private sector bank that sponsors more than 250 cooperative banks, which it says gives a route to offer UPI and its wider platform across that network. The bank is not named and the terms were not given.
Competition and funding in the same niche
The Entrackr report names two rivals. RUGR Fintech raised $5 million in a pre-Series A round in September 2025, led by the Vikasa India EIF I Fund. TransBnk raised a $25 million Series B in August 2025, led by Bessemer Venture Partners. On those figures, OneStack's latest round is the smallest of the three, and a gap of that kind can matter in a market where technology vendors need to spend heavily on compliance, security and support.
Why it matters, and what is uncertain
Three things are confirmed by the report: the amount, the investors and the product list. Three are claims by the company relayed in it: the 200-plus bank customers, the direct NPCI access under bank handles, and the large private bank partnership. And several things are simply unknown, including valuation, revenue, losses, the number of live UPI banks and the transaction volumes. Readers should keep those three groups apart when weighing the round.
For cooperative banks, the pitch is control. A bank that owns its UPI handle and its transaction data can see what customers do and keep any merchant fees, instead of paying a sponsor. That is plausible but not proven here: the report offers no customer names, no figures on volumes and no regulator comment.
For customers of these banks, better digital services would mean being able to pay and receive money by UPI from their own bank account, rather than needing an account at a larger bank. For regulators, a larger number of small banks running payment systems also raises questions about security and operations, which is why the compliance credentials in the report matter.
For founders and investors, the round is a reminder that infrastructure for niche banks can still attract money, though the amount is modest. The report gives no sense of how many investors looked at the deal.
The simulator below shows what a round does to ownership. The valuation is not disclosed, so it uses an example that you can change; it is not an estimate of OneStack's actual valuation.
What to watch next
Watch for the disclosure of OneStack's revenue, which company filings with the Registrar of Companies usually make public some months after a year-end. Also look for the name of the private bank partner, any NPCI or RBI guidance on cooperative banks acting as direct UPI participants, and the progress of RUGR and TransBnk. A first non-bank lender signed up would test the plan to extend beyond cooperative banks.
Key takeaways
- OneStack raised Rs 12.5 crore, about $1.5 million, from Shepherd's Hill, Pentathlon Ventures and AVNM Ventures, taking its total funding to Rs 45 crore.
- The company sells core banking, UPI issuing and acquiring, and compliance tools so cooperative banks can run their own digital services.
- It claims more than 200 bank customers, but the report gives no revenue, valuation or live-user figures.
- Rivals TransBnk and RUGR have raised $25 million and $5 million in 2025, both more than OneStack's latest round.
- The report is a single source and the company's claims have not been independently verified.
Sources
- [Entrackr: Fintech infra startup OneStack raises Rs 12.5 Cr from Shepherd's Hill, others](https://entrackr.com/snippets/fintech-infra-startup-onestack-raises-rs-125-cr-from-shepherds-hill-others-12782259)
Tags: OneStack Startup funding UPI Cooperative banks Fintech