India's Account Aggregator, UPI Deeplink, and financial data API platform
Setu is India's leading API platform for Account Aggregator (AA) data consent, UPI Deeplinks, BBPS bill payments, and financial data APIs. Founded in 2018 by Nikhil Kumar and Sahil Kini, it was acquired by Pinelabs in 2022 for ~$70M — adding Pinelabs' scale and credibility to its developer-focused API products. For Indian fintech product managers, Setu is most relevant in three contexts: (1) building credit underwriting using AA-consented bank statement data, (2) generating UPI payment links/QR codes for collections, and (3) integrating bill payment (BBPS) into your product. The documentation is among the best in the Indian fintech API space — clear, sandbox-first, and with SDKs for React, Flutter, and Node.js.
India Market Fit 4.8: 100% India-focused, INR pricing, RBI-regulated AA infrastructure. Documentation 4.6: Developer-first approach with comprehensive sandbox, OpenAPI specs, and code samples in 4+ languages.
Setu is a fintech API platform that provides the infrastructure layer for three critical financial primitives in India: Account Aggregator (AA) data consent — allowing users to securely share their bank data with financial institutions; UPI payments — deep links, collect requests, and QR codes; and BBPS (Bharat Bill Payment System) — bill payment integration for utilities, insurance, loans, and other bill categories.
Setu was built on the conviction that India's financial infrastructure — UPI, AA, BBPS, NACH — is world-class but difficult to integrate without a clean abstraction layer. Setu provides that layer: a well-documented REST API that handles all the regulatory complexity, bank connections, and NPCI/RBI certification requirements so product teams can focus on building user experiences rather than financial plumbing.
After Pinelab acquisition in 2022, Setu gained access to Pinelabs' payment infrastructure and scale. The integration with Pinelab makes Setu's UPI APIs particularly robust for production-scale deployments.
RBI-regulated AA consent framework. Get user consent to fetch 12-24 months of bank statement data. Used for credit underwriting (lending), income verification, and expense analytics. Supports 60+ banks.
Generate UPI payment links (intent:// scheme) that open any UPI app on Android. Create static/dynamic QR codes. Collect requests for peer-to-peer or B2C collections. Payment status webhooks.
Integrate India's official bill payment network — electricity, water, gas, DTH, broadband, insurance premiums, loan EMIs. Users can pay 200+ billers through your product. Standard BBPS transaction fees.
Bank statement analysis, income categorisation, recurring payment detection, and credit bureau data enrichment (via partners). Power BNPL, lending, and wealth management products.
NPCI-regulated recurring payment setup — direct debit mandates for subscription billing, loan EMIs, SIPs. Digital mandate via UPI AutoPay, Aadhaar e-sign, or net banking. Faster than paper NACH.
OpenAPI 3.0 specs, Postman collections, Sandbox environment, SDKs for React/Flutter/Node. One of the best developer experiences among Indian fintech API providers. Free sandbox access.
The Account Aggregator framework is India's equivalent of Open Banking (UK) or PSD2 (Europe). Here's what Indian product managers need to understand:
| Step | What Happens | Who's Involved |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Consent | User authorises your app to access their financial data | Your app (FIU) + Setu AA + User |
| 2. Data Request | Setu fetches data from user's bank(s) on your behalf | Setu AA + User's bank (FIP) |
| 3. Data Delivery | Encrypted financial data delivered to your API endpoint | Setu → Your backend |
| 4. Analysis | Your app processes 12-24 months bank statements | Your product + data science team |
| 5. Decision | Underwriting, income verification, credit limit calculation | Your product |
Lending (credit underwriting): Fetch 6-12 months of bank statements to verify income, assess creditworthiness, and offer instant loan decisions. Used by Navi, KreditBee, and 50+ Indian lenders. Wealth management: Aggregate user's bank + demat + mutual fund data for holistic portfolio view. Tax filing: Pre-fill ITR with bank transaction data. BNPL: Underwrite BNPL transactions using real-time bank data instead of credit score alone.
| Provider | Strengths | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Setu (Pinelabs) | AA-first, best docs, UPI Deeplinks, Pinelabs scale | Lending, collections, bill payments, AA consent |
| Razorpay | Payments breadth, merchant ecosystem, brand trust | eCommerce payments, marketplace settlements |
| Decentro | Full banking stack — accounts, UPI, NACH, IMPS | Banking-as-a-Service, neobank builders |
| Finbox | Credit APIs, bureau data, lending workflow | BNPL, lending product teams |
| FinBox / Karza | Compliance, KYC, bureau, GSTIN data APIs | KYC-heavy onboarding, SME lending |