Fintech startups are racing to secure licences in GIFT City as they try to build one-stop platforms for non-resident Indians (NRIs) to save and invest by combining payments, fund distribution and broking into a single regulated stack.
The momentum is fueled by surging demand from NRIs in the Middle East, where fintech firms report that inflows nearly doubled during March and April, with the majority directed toward dollar-denominated fixed deposits.
The trend reflects how fintechs are using to offer a simpler route into India-linked savings and investments, aiming to address their concerns about stability, tax-efficiency, and easier execution.
However, some industry participants said this recent surge in activity may be a temporary response to macro conditions rather than a permanent shift in investment behavior.
Belong, which is building an NRI-focused financial platform out of GIFT City, said inflows in March and April almost doubled from the January-February period. The company said the jump was driven largely by new users, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) accounting for the largest share of activity, followed by Qatar.
Vested Finance is another fintech startup pushing into GIFT City, using its licences to connect Indian and overseas investors to global markets through a regulated platform.
Licence to bill
For both companies, their licences are the moat. Belong has a payment service provider (PSP) licence apart from its distributor and broking licences, while Vested has applied for a PSP licence, which would allow it to move money, manage payments, and build a multi-currency wallet inside the app instead of relying on a partner bank.
“We are able to plug the journey between their foreign bank account and a GIFT City investment because we own the PSP layer,” said Ankur Choudhary, co-founder and CEO of Belong. “It removes dependence on a partner bank for the payments layer and helps Belong control the full customer journey from foreign bank account to investment product.”
Belong’s distributor licence allows it to distribute mutual funds and other fund-based products in GIFT City, while its broking licence will allow exchange-traded offerings, including planned GIFT Nifty futures and options trading, and upcoming exchange-traded funds ().
Vested, meanwhile, has a global access provider licence that allows it to offer access to global investments through GIFT City for residents and global investors. Nikhil Lasrado, director, international at Vested Finance, said this is central to the company’s pitch as a gateway, not just to India but also in the US and other markets.
NRIs rush in
Choudhary said the Middle East is Belong’s largest market, with new user additions up nearly 55% in March and another 25% in April. The company’s assets under management (AUM) from NRIs has crossed $10 million, he said, adding that the business was growing 30-40% month-on-month before the West Asia conflict, which increased to 60-70% month-on-month over the past two months.
“Most of these investors from the Middle East are looking to diversify out of the region. But it’s not like they’re moving all their investments and savings… it’s either real estate, gold or crypto investments,” Choudhary said.
The average UAE customer holds about $25,000 on the platform, while the average deposit from a resident in the region exceeds $5,000, he said. The sweet spot is salaried white-collar NRIs aged 30 to 45, typically earning 15,000 to 20,000 dirhams a month in roles across oil, tech and real estate, Choudhary added.
Vested Finance also saw a sharp rise in NRI inflows between March and May, with the invested corpus from this segment rising 45% over the December-February period, according to Viram Shah, co-founder and chief executive of Vested Finance. The increase was particularly sharp from the Middle East and Singapore, with inflows from the UAE rising 58%, Qatar 199%, and Singapore 153%.
Shah said nearly 30% of the increase came from new customers, with the rest driven largely by higher allocations from existing users. He added that the average portfolio value of NRI customers on the platform is now nearing $30,000.
Niharika Tripathi, head of products and research at Wealthy, said while real estate, foreign currency non-resident (FCNR) deposits, and mutual funds have historically formed the core of NRIs’ India exposure, administrative hurdles and KYC friction have often proved to be greater barriers than a lack of demand.
“There have been massive PAN and Aadhaar linkage issues for NRIs looking to open investment accounts in India, apart from TDS (tax deducted at source) computation and tax paperwork. But GIFT City helps by making the process more seamless, even if some friction remains,” Tripathi added.
Here today, gone tomorrow?
While GIFT City is drawing more , market participants cautioned this appetite may be cyclical rather than permanent. The recent spike reflects a defensive posture against weak dollar returns and rupee pressure rather than a full-throated bet on Indian equities, which have looked less compelling due to rich valuations and softening earnings, they said. As GIFT City evolves into a lower-friction gateway, the real contest among fintechs is now about which platform can best simplify cross-border investing while offering stability and tax efficiency.
Tripathi of Wealthy said the trend is cautious rather than euphoric. She said NRIs are moving deposits because currency levels are favourable and non-resident external (NRE) account savings rates are decent, but equities remain “a little bit of a mixed bag” because Indian markets have been weak in dollar terms of late.
“NRIs still look at India for a mix of family links, emotional ties, diversification and long-term corpus building, but many are choosing to stagger their exposure rather than deploy it all at once,” Tripathi added.
The LRS trap
However, not every adviser is telling NRIs in the Gulf to rush money back to India. Lovaii Navlakhi, chief executive of International Money Matters, said when Middle East, US or UK clients talk about retiring or moving back, he often recommends keeping a large part of their corpus in foreign deposits and securities rather than shifting it to India at one go, even with the new GIFT City routes.
“Once you return and become resident again, your liberalised remittance scheme (LRS) limit resets every financial year, so you can remit up to $250,000 a year out of India if you need global diversification,” he said. “If you move everything into India before you come back, that LRS ceiling becomes a constraint when you later want to take money out again.”