MobiKwik is in a precarious position. Despite record GMV and improvement in gross margins, the fintech company’s Q1 FY26 numbers reflect a melancholy of declining revenues and widening losses.

• Operating revenue withered 18.6% YoY to INR 281.6 Cr
• Losses widened 6X YoY to INR 41.9 Cr

With weak fundamentals, Bipin Preet Singh’s MobiKwik is desperate to break even by Q4 FY26. But, something seems to be holding it back.

Stuck In The Middle: In India’s fintech hierarchy, MobiKwik is in an uncomfortable state. Its payments business is a fraction of PhonePe’s, and its lending vertical is dwarfed by Paytm. Its latest foray into stockbroking is equally challenged, as it tries to steal market share from giants like Zerodha and Groww, just as a bigger juggernaut with even deeper pockets, JFS, muscles into the space.

The Promising Prospects: MobiKwik is pinning its profitability hopes on the payments business, which it claims has 5X better net margins than rivals and a contribution margin of 28% that supposedly outshines the industry. The company is also leaning on AI-led automation and cost-cutting measures to push towards profitability.

Super App Gamble: MobiKwik is also doubling down on its existing business lines to drive growth. It plans to capitalise on its strong presence in the UPI space to monetise its wallet business. Simultaneously, the fintech platform is also expanding its higher-margin, long-tenure loan products to improve gross margins.

All said and done, it’s going to be a steep uphill battle for MobiKwik, whose stock has declined 47.5% since listing

Startup Funding Rebounds: Indian startups cumulatively raised $197 Mn across 25 deals last week, soaring 90% from $103 Mn in the preceding week. The Sleep Company and RENEE raked in the biggest rounds at $54.6 Mn and $30 Mn, respectively.

EV Scheme Extended Till 2028: The heavy industries ministry has extended the PM E-DRIVE scheme by an additional two years. The policy, with an outlay of INR 10,900 Cr, has been envisaged with boosting EV adoption, manufacturing and charging infrastructure.

New-Age Tech Stocks Bleed: Of the 36 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage, 24 ended last week in the red and lost in the range of 0.08% to over 9%. While Yudiz and EaseMyTrip were the biggest losers, Ather and BlackBuck were the biggest winners.

GPT-5 Is Here, But… The newly introduced LLM by OpenAI brought with it much backlash as users flagged restrictive usage and less contextually accurate replies by GPT-5. With OpenAI positioning the LLM as a massive leap in its AI capability, should Indian startups be worried?

PhysicsWallah’s IPO Litmus Test: BYJU’S has collapsed and Unacademy is grappling with mounting losses, but Alakh Pandey-led edtech major is gearing up for an INR 4,600 Cr IPO. Can PhysicsWallah’s IPO rewrite the Indian edtech story?

Yatra’s Q1 Profit Zooms: The online travel aggregator’s net profit soared 300% to INR 16 Cr in Q1 FY26 from INR 4 Cr in the year-ago quarter. Revenue from operations also zoomed 108% YoY to INR 209.8 Cr in the quarter ended June 2025.

Rewriting Neuroscience With AI: BrainSightAI is using AI and ML to diagnose and treat brain tumours and Parkinson’s by creating a digital map of the human brain. With a handful of rivals on its tail, can the startup reshape the treatment approach for neurological disorders?

Zype Nets INR 90 Cr: Days after the fintech startup raised the capital in a mix of financing and equity, CEO Yogi Sadana said that the round’s INR 34 Cr debt portion has been converted into equity. Zype operates as a fintech-focussed lifestyle app that helps users get instant credit.

For an India that is increasingly consuming content on the go, short-form videos often lack cinematic quality and regional authenticity. Addressing this disconnect is Chai Shots, which produces microdramas that resonate with the country’s mobile-first audience.

The Cultural Connect: Instead of relying on dubbed content, the startup is filling the gap in India’s digital entertainment space by creating original two-minute dramas that are rooted in Indian culture and languages. Made for vertical viewing, Chai Shots’ design choice is a deliberate move to fill the void between user-generated content on platforms like Instagram Reels and long-form series on traditional OTT apps.

Hyperlocal Storytelling: Currently available only in Telugu, Chai Shots, going forward, plans to launch content in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. The Hyderabad-based platform is also on track to release more than 100 original shows shortly.

Eye On The Microdrama Boom: Backed by $5 Mn in funding from Info Edge Ventures and General Catalyst, Chai Shots is looking to make a dent in the growing microdrama space, which is projected to become a $12 Bn global opportunity by 2030.

But, with giants like Netflix and JioHotstar experimenting with short-form content and new entrants popping up in the space, can Chai Shots disrupt India’s vertical storytelling experience?

The post MobiKwik’s Uphill Battle, Startup Funding Rebounds & More appeared first on Inc42 Media.