SEBI’s Gold Warning Shot, BharatAgri Shuts Shop, and Pine Labs’ Surge

For last few years, digital gold was India’s favourite financial illusion - an investment product that looked modern, felt convenient, and quietly lived outside every regulator’s rulebook. You could buy “24K gold” for ₹1 on apps you opened ten times a day, watch the number inch up, and feel like you were building wealth. No Demat, no brokers, no paperwork. It was fintech’s perfect trick: wealth-building without friction and without supervision.

By 2024, this wasn’t a side hustle for fintech anymore. India invested ₹1.5 lakh crore in gold that year, and nearly 10% of it (₹13,000-15,000 crore) flowed into digital gold. SafeGold alone reported ₹6,500 crore in revenue and 55 million customers. UPI purchases of digital gold jumped 377% in 16 months. A parallel gold market had emerged inside UPI apps, almost entirely outside SEBI’s reach.

On 08 November 2025, SEBI finally broke the suspense: digital gold is unregulated, unprotected, and outside its jurisdiction. No Investor Protection Fund, no complaint mechanism, no safety net. The message was blunt- if something goes wrong, you’re on your own. Instantly, platforms saw redemptions spike, and advisors told clients to move to ETFs, gold mutual funds, or SGBs.

Ironically, the advisory didn’t just scare the market; it also cleared the air. Mature fintech founders prefer rules to loopholes. Regulation brings institutional capital, long-term product clarity, and the chance to go public without legal headaches.

The bigger truth is this: digital gold was never efficient. Every buy included 3% GST plus 2-3% in spreads and platform fees. You started your “investment” 6% in the red. Gold ETFs, by comparison, had near-zero friction and 0.5-1% annual fees. What felt like the democratic option was often the most expensive one.

So why did it explode? Because it nailed accessibility. You could buy ₹10 worth of gold through UPI - something ETFs and EGRs still don’t offer. For first-time investors and low-income users, digital gold wasn’t just a product; it was their entry into financial behaviour. SEBI’s caution, while sensible, risks pushing millions back to the sidelines.

The real issue is regulatory identity. Nobody knew who owned digital gold. Was it an investment? A commodity? A payments product? While regulators debated definitions, tens of millions of Indians bought it anyway. This is crypto déjà vu - taxed aggressively, regulated vaguely, and trusted blindly.

We’ve seen this movie before in P2P lending and fractional real estate: a product grows in a grey zone, regulators panic, then design a framework after the fact. Digital gold is at that same turning point. SEBI already created a clean alternative - Electronic Gold Receipts (EGRs) - but they failed to scale because they require Demat accounts and feel institutional, not mass-market.

Globally, regulators have been smarter. The US built gold ETFs to fit within existing securities laws. Singapore tests tokenized gold inside supervised sandboxes. India allowed digital gold to scale outside the lab - and is now scrambling to bring it back inside.

Who gains from the reset? Brokers and mutual funds. Gold ETF AUM crossed ₹1 lakh crore, rising 129% in a year. AMC flows are accelerating, and SGBs (with 2.5% interest + tax-free gains) suddenly look superior to everything else.

Who loses? Payment apps and pure digital-gold startups. For PhonePe, Paytm, and Google Pay, digital gold wasn’t revenue; it was habit formation. Replacing it with ETF SIPs is possible, but not frictionless. For apps like Jar or Gullak, which built their entire story around “₹10/day gold,” the pivot is far harder.

Vaulting companies like SafeGold and MMTC-PAMP could survive by becoming the backend of a regulated Digital Gold 2.0, but they’ll need mutual-fund-level transparency.

We think SEBI’s caution is right, but overdue. Digital gold shows the gap between “financial inclusion” and “financial safety.” If your flagship product depends on a blind spot, you don’t have a business; you have an arbitrage. And arbitrages don’t last. Digital gold is the warning shot. Tokenized real estate and on-chain assets are next.

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.

“My Time Has Come”: Agritech Startup BharatAgri Shuts Operations Due To Funding Crunch

BharatAgri, once hailed as a digital ally for India’s farmers, has shuttered its doors after running out of financial steam.

The agritech startup couldn’t sow fresh funding to cover mounting losses, leading to layoffs and a quiet wind-down. A sobering reminder that even in fertile fields, not every seed of innovation takes root.

Read more here

“I Yam What I Yam”: Pine Labs Receives Three Key RBI Payment Licences Ahead Of IPO

Fintech giant Pine Labs just got a triple treat from the RBI - three crucial payment licenses that clear its path across India’s digital payment landscape.

With this, it can now handle everything from global transactions to merchant settlements with ease. The timing’s poetic too - coming right after its IPO dazzled investors with a 2.46X oversubscription.

Read more here

“Aao Milkar Kaam Karein”: PhonePe Integrates ChatGPT's AI Features for its Indian User Base

Fintech giant PhonePe has announced a partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT's advanced AI features directly into its consumer and business apps in India. This collaboration will allow PhonePe users to access smarter, more relevant information for daily tasks like travel planning and shopping.

Read more here

1. Mumbai-based Nia.one has raised $2.4 million in seed funding from Elevar Equity to strengthen its infrastructure for gig and blue-collar workers.

   Read more here

2. Brandworks Technologies has secured an additional $4 million in its extended Series A round led by Roha Family Office to boost AI hardware manufacturing in India.

   Read more here

3. NBFC Kinara Capital is seeking around INR 200 crore from external investors to steer clear of a looming debt crisis. Founder Hardika Shah confirmed that existing investors are unlikely to pump in fresh capital at this stage.

   Read more here

4. Mirova has invested $30 million in Varaha to supercharge its Kheti soil carbon project. The funding will help Varaha expand its reach from 25,000 to 3.37 lakh farmers across Haryana and Punjab, scaling up carbon removal efforts tenfold.

   Read more here

5. EV charging startup ACS Energy has raised Rs 1.1 crore in a pre-seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The funds will power the rollout of 5,000 UPI-enabled charging stations across Maharashtra and Gujarat and advance its AI-based energy management tech.

   Read more here

6. K J Somaiya Institute of Management has launched a Rs 1 crore New Venture Investment Project to give MBA students hands-on experience in startup investing. In collaboration with RiiDL, the initiative lets students assess and recommend real startups for funding.

   Read more here

7. Bengaluru-based Alive has raised Rs 6 crore from Powerhouse Ventures and angel investors to scale its curated experiences platform. The startup will use the funds to expand across more Indian cities and enhance its tech infrastructure.

   Read more here

8. Rocket propulsion startup Trishul Space has raised Rs 4 crore in a pre-seed round led by IAN Angel Fund, with backing from 8X Ventures and ITEL. The funds will fuel R&D and testing of its Harpy-1 liquid engine’s turbopump technology for small satellite launchers.

   Read more here