India, Dec. 29 -- 2025 has been a strong year, and 2026 is shaping up to be an exceptionally busy one across the ecosystem. The lines between different models are getting blurred.

Neobanking startups are doing lending, and lending startups are entering embedded finance. Everyone is trying to build a full-stack model to an extent.However, the phenomenon of blurred roles is essential because payments are not highly monetisable. They are only moderately monetisable. Lending is monetisable, but efficient lending is challenging, especially when competing with the financial ecosystem.

Institutes themselves, unless they have a good source of funds, cannot compete with financial institutions that have better spreads when it comes to the cost of...