OneCard’s Debt Reality Check, Swiggy Closes QIP, and Shiprocket Files DRHP

India’s fintech universe loves announcing big equity rounds, but the smarter founders know that the real test begins when the money becomes expensive. And that’s exactly why OneCard’s latest move, raising ₹40 crore in venture debt at a 13.85% interest rate, says far more about the company’s reality than any flashy unicorn valuation ever did. Debt forces discipline. Debt exposes the truth. And debt, unlike VC cheerleading, has no patience for PowerPoint optimism. If a lender like Alteria writes three back-to-back cheques to the same startup - ₹95 crore, then ₹120 crore, and now another ₹40 crore - it is either extremely confident or extremely careful. In OneCard’s case, it’s both.

This is a company that scaled at breakneck speed. Revenue jumped from ₹84 crore in FY22 to ₹541 crore in FY23 to a massive ₹1,425 crore in FY24. A 17x growth spurt in two years should normally be a cause for celebration, but for OneCard it came with an uncomfortable footnote: losses went from ₹28 crore to ₹405 crore to ₹401 crore. That’s not hypergrowth; that’s hyper-expensive growth. In FY24, OneCard spent ₹1.85 to earn ₹1. And more than ₹1,105 crore - 59% of all expenses - sat in a miscellaneous bucket. Nothing terrifies investors more than a miscellaneous bucket. It’s where explanations go to die.

And yet, the business clearly works. Users rave about the app. The metal card became a premium badge. ARPU sits at a strong ₹20,365 per active card, placing OneCard in the same territory as ICICI and Axis co-branded cards. The founders are ex-ICICI veterans with deep credit DNA. But fintech is not about how beautiful the front end looks. It’s about how tightly the back end is stitched. And that’s where the cracks started showing.

RBI’s crackdown on data-sharing for co-branded credit cards hit at the worst possible time. When the regulator tells banks that co-branding partners cannot access transaction-level data under any circumstances, it strikes at the heart of OneCard’s full-stack promise. This is a company whose whole pitch is that it handles everything - underwriting, fraud, tech, app, lifecycle. But suddenly the regulator is telling banks that fintechs can’t see what customers are spending on. That’s like telling Swiggy it can run a food marketplace but cannot see the restaurant orders. Federal Bank paused issuances. South Indian Bank paused issuances. The rest quietly followed. New customer acquisition, OneCard’s oxygen, suddenly tightened.

This is also why the debt raise makes sense. In a period where growth has slowed because of regulatory handcuffs, equity investors would demand a valuation haircut. Debt avoids that humiliation. It buys time. It keeps founders’ 30% stake intact. It signals that Alteria is confident the RBI issue will be resolved within 12-18 months.

Compare this with Slice. When RBI shut down BNPL credit lines in 2022, Slice didn’t wait for permission - it acquired a small finance bank, rewired its entire model, and hit profitability. That’s how you survive Indian regulation: you adapt faster than the regulator expects. OneCard, instead, is playing the long game - tighten costs, fix data systems, ride out the storm, resume issuing cards, and scale with discipline. It’s slower, but it’s cleaner. CRED, meanwhile, is slowly creeping into premium cards with IndusInd. And traditional banks, once asleep at the wheel, are learning to partner smarter.

But here’s the real reason OneCard is raising debt instead of equity: the numbers - despite the growth - don’t yet inspire equity confidence. FY24 expenses were ₹1,865 crore. Marketing alone was ₹487 crore. And if your miscellaneous expenses jump 153% in one year, no serious investor will buy the “we’re close to profitability” narrative. Debt, in this context, is not just capital; it is a credibility test. Alteria believes OneCard can service 13.85% interest for three years.

The real battle now is with time. If RBI takes too long to resolve the data-sharing issue, OneCard’s path narrows. If Slice keeps compounding profitability, the market narrative shifts. If CRED launches a premium card that becomes the new aspirational default, OneCard gets squeezed. And if banks - HDFC, ICICI, SBI Cards - push co-branded products harder, fintechs will find the premium customer pool shrinking.

But if the regulator issue resolves by mid-2025, the story changes instantly. Issuances resume. Revenue crosses ₹1,800 crore in FY25. EBITDA turns positive by FY26. Net profit becomes realistic by FY27. And the company stabilizes at a $1.5-2 billion valuation. The base case is not glamorous, but it is solid.

In a way, OneCard’s debt raise is the perfect symbol of the Indian fintech mood in 2025: the era of easy equity is over, the regulator is awake, unit economics are king, and growth is no longer impressive unless it is sustainable. For years, fintech founders believed capital could outrun physics. Today, the companies that survive are the ones that respect gravity.

Let’s go through what else is happening in Indian startup world - Grab your simmering cup of StartupChai.in and unwind with our hand-brewed memes.

“Badhai Ho Badhai”: Swiggy Closes INR 10K Cr QIP By Issuing Shares At INR 375 Apiece

Swiggy has closed its ₹10,000 Cr QIP at ₹375 per share, a near 4% discount to the floor price, drawing interest from major mutual funds including SBI, ICICI Prudential, HDFC, and Kotak.

The raise reflects quiet institutional confidence rather than market noise. About ₹4,475 Cr will be deployed to scale and operate its quick commerce fulfilment network, where speed is the real moat.

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“Kadmo Se Milte Hai Kadme”: Eternal-Backed Shiprocket Files Updated DRHP For INR 2,342 Cr IPO

Eternal backed Shiprocket has filed an updated DRHP for a ₹2,342 Cr IPO, combining a fresh issue of up to ₹1,100 Cr with an OFS worth ₹1,242.3 Cr.

The sell down will see cofounders Gautam Kapoor, Saahil Goel, and Vishesh Khurana exit partially alongside investors like LR India Fund I, Arvind Ltd, and Tribe Capital III. From the fresh capital, ₹505 Cr is earmarked for strengthening its platforms across core and emerging businesses.

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“Suswagatam Suswagatam”: Meta Ropes In Ex-Amazon Exec As India Public Policy Head

Meta has roped in ex Amazon public policy director Aman Jain as senior director and India public policy head, tasking him with steering policy strategy and government engagement.

Jain will report to APAC policy VP Simon Milner and is set to take charge early next year, succeeding Shivnath Thukral who moved to PhonePe. With over two decades across Amazon and a long stint at Google, Jain arrives as a steady institutional operator rather than a headline hire.

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1. Neon Fund has closed its fourth fund at $25 Mn to double down on AI driven B2B SaaS startups, extending a strategy it began with Fund III in 2023. The fund has already backed 12 startups and plans to invest in 13 more, adding to a portfolio that includes Game State Labs, Highperformr, Merlin AI, Zepic, and Buddy.

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2. OneCard is set to raise ₹40 Cr in debt from existing backer Alteria Capital, following board approval to issue 4,000 non convertible debentures at a face value of ₹1 lakh each. The move comes months after its $28.5 Mn equity round that pegged the fintech unicorn at a $1.4 Bn post money valuation.

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