Fintech Jupiter's plan to pick stake in State Bank of Mauritius India arm falls through

Jupiter's talks with SBM fall apart

• Jupiter Money's plan to buy SBM India stake has fallen through
• SBM's new management, Mauritius government were not keen on the partnership
• Jupiter prioritises profitability over new growth strategies.

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Tiger Global-backed fintech Jupiter Money’s bid to acquire a minority stake in State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) India collapsed after the lender decided not to move ahead with discussions, sources told Moneycontrol.

“While the RBI seemed amenable to the idea, the change of government in Mauritius and the new management at the bank have changed the dynamics. The Mauritius side is now not keen on a fintech partnership for growth,” one of the sources cited above said.

Jupiter’s founder, Jitendra Gupta and SBM did not respond to Moneycontrol queries on the status of acquisition talks.

The discussions, which began two years ago, were initially aimed at acquiring a 5-9 percent stake, which was to be gradually raised to transform SBM into a fintech-first digital bank.

Jupiter’s focus now is to turn a profit over the next 12-14 months before charting a new growth strategy, a second source said. The company has transformed into a money management app.

High-stake play

The initial talks valued SBM at Rs 2,000 crore, and even a 50 percent stake would have cost Rs 1,000 crore, around $110 million, a fairly moderate round of funding for fintechs.

In late 2024, a new government came to power in Mauritius, and the Indian subsidiary’s management also saw a major shake-up. India, being a key partner country of Mauritius, the bank’s role in the country is more politically driven than economically led. Mauritius has a majority Indian-origin population.

“Most of the executives who led the discussions with Jupiter and championed a fintech partnership led growth and partial ownership, left the bank. The new leadership was not keen on convincing the new Mauritian government about the requirement for a partnership,” a third source told Moneycontrol.

The Bengaluru-based fintech has raised $167 million in funding at a valuation of around $650 million so far, according to Tracxn, a private market data provider.

The fintech banking model

Sachin Bansal-led Navi Finserv was also in talks with SBM for a stake sale.

SBM India has been a premier partner for Indian fintechs since 2016, helping them launch several credit products, some of which were controversial. A prepaid card that mimicked credit cards was shut down by the RBI.

Since the fintech firm Slice’s merger with North East Small Finance Bank and its transformation into a digital-first fintech bank, there is a heightened interest among fintechs to acquire a bank or small finance bank (SFB).

Neobanks are usually digital-only banks, with no physical presence, offering similar or identical banking services to customers.

In theory, neobanks provide a technology layer on top of the banks, delivering better and faster financial services products and offerings to their customers. However, since they are not recognised or regulated, they need to partner with banks and other financial institutions to offer these products.

Neobanks’ restricted banking play

Jupiter started as a neobank in 2019. But without a licence or recognition from regulators, such fintechs ended up being glorified digital sales agents (DSAs) or a customer acquisition channel for banks.

Neobanks struggle with low revenue and no meaningful scale. Recently, FiMoney decided to shut most of its customer-facing neobank operations.

Over the past two years, Jupiter has aggressively pursued scale without much success and was looking to acquire a bank to build a new-age digital lender.

Gupta chips in

Jupiter is expanding its latest funding round to about $25–26 million. The additional infusion follows the Rs 115-crore ($15 million) tranche raised in October from existing investors Mirae Asset Venture Investments, BeeNext, and 3one4 Capital, along with a personal investment from Gupta.

The fintech has over three million customers, with nearly 60 percent actively engaging on the platform across products such as savings accounts, credit cards, investments, loans, and insurance. Around a quarter of active users use two or more Jupiter products, underscoring the increasing depth of engagement within its ecosystem. The company’s account aggregator service has also seen traction, with over one million active users.