OneStack raises Rs 12.5 crore to bring cooperative banks onto UPI rails

Fintech infrastructure startup OneStack has raised Rs 12.5 crore in a fresh funding round led by new investor Shepherd’s Hill, with existing backers Pentathlon Ventures and AVNM Ventures participating, the company said on 4 November 2026.

The investment takes OneStack’s total capital raised to more than Rs 45 crore across four funding rounds. The company plans to use the money to broaden its footprint among cooperative banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), while developing its core banking, fraud detection, and digital payment systems.

Direct access to India's digital payments network

The funding comes as OneStack connects its partner cooperative banks directly to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) network operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Instead of routing payments through larger sponsor institutions, member cooperative banks are now going live as both direct issuers and acquirers under their own handles.

Operating directly on NPCI rails allows smaller lenders to issue branded UPI handles to account holders, onboard local shopkeepers, and clear transactions internally. The arrangement keeps customer transaction data and payment fee income inside the cooperative system.

“Cooperative banks have always had their communities’ trust, but on UPI they were disconnected from their own customers,” Amit Kapoor, founder and chief executive of OneStack, said. Operating as direct issuers puts local lenders at the centre of everyday retail commerce, he added.

The change also enables cooperative institutions to earn merchant discount rate (MDR) revenue under the revised payments framework, which introduces a 0.40% fee on person-to-merchant UPI transactions above Rs 2,000, capped at Rs 300.

Strengthening grassroots financial infrastructure

India's cooperative banking sector includes 34 state cooperative banks, 351 district central cooperative banks with nearly 15,900 branches, according to NABARD data, alongside 1,457 urban cooperative banks tracked by the Reserve Bank of India. While these institutions hold deep community roots, building standalone modern digital infrastructure has often proved costly.

OneStack, founded in 2019 by Amit Kapoor and joined by co-founder Vishal Gupta in 2023, provides shared infrastructure so smaller institutions can deliver modern digital banking without heavy capital expenditure. The platform includes merchant QR payments, branded SoundBox devices, debit card management, and its OneCBS core banking platform.

The company has also integrated compliance suites connected to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), alongside certifications for RuPay debit card issuance and Aadhaar-based eKYC verification.

OneStack states that it currently provides technology services to more than 200 banks across India, including district central cooperative lenders and urban cooperative banks. It has also been onboarded to Sahakar Sarathi, the shared services platform backed by NABARD and rural cooperative lenders, strengthening the government's push to modernise last-mile financial delivery across the country.