- Network People Services Technologies Ltd. (NPST) is a payment-technology company that builds the digital plumbing banks and fintechs use to move money, detect fraud, and stay compliant - it does not compete with consumer apps like PhonePe or Google Pay but supplies the switches and software those apps run on. Founded in 2013 and listed on the SME exchange since that year, the company spent its first decade as a technology service partner to banks, then in FY26 reshaped itself around higher-margin subscription software, regulatory technology, and international projects, deliberately shrinking its exposure to low-monetisation payment flows. The recurring pattern is that NPST builds a modular, API-first platform once, sells it to many regulated institutions on a licence or pay-per-use basis, and then layers on adjacent products - fraud detection, dispute resolution, offline payments - that deepen each customer relationship.
Business segments
A single engine with four cylinders - a core technology-provider business that supplies banks with payment switches and digital-banking software, flanked by a pay-per-use payments platform, an AI-driven regulatory-technology suite, and an international arm that exports the same playbook to markets where fees are structurally embedded.
1. Technology Service Provider: the switchboard banks plug into
NPST sells and maintains the transaction-processing software - UPI, IMPS, CBDC - that lets banks connect to India’s payment rails, earning licence fees and annual maintenance charges rather than a cut of each transaction.
- A switch for every rail - the portfolio includes a UPI Switch built to handle up to two billion transactions a month, an IMPS Switch used by public-sector and regional rural banks, a CBDC Switch purpose-built for the digital rupee, and an IBMB Switch that lets a bank connect once to all payment aggregators instead of stitching together point-to-point links.
- Lightweight version for smaller banks - a cloud-native switch aimed at cooperative banks and regional rural banks has already landed a landmark order from a State Cooperative Bank Federation to onboard more than 100 institutions, expanding the addressable market beyond large commercial banks.
- Compliance is part of the product - because NPST serves regulated entities, its systems are built to RBI guidelines, with a dedicated Chief Information Security Officer office, an internal risk committee, and fraud-monitoring tools that help client banks strengthen their own compliance.
- Scaling tenants, not just transactions - the company had its solutions deployed across more than 100 institutions in FY25 and targets at least 200 tenants by FY29, growing the client base from about six banks at IPO to more than twenty regulated entities today.
2. Payments Platform-as-a-Service: the merchant-acquiring engine banks rent
NPST runs the online and offline payment-acceptance infrastructure - checkout pages, QR codes, SoundBox devices - on behalf of banks and charges per transaction or per device per month, turning a bank’s capital expenditure into an operating expense.
- Two platforms, one logic - Evok handles online payments with built-in multi-bank capability so merchants are not tied to a single banking provider, while Qynx manages offline QR and SoundBox devices across a large merchant portfolio, including inventory and reconciliation.
- Device-as-a-service removes the upfront cost - under this model NPST bears the hardware cost and the bank pays a recurring per-merchant, per-month fee, which is why the company can multiply revenue simply by adding more devices and customers.
- Cooperative banks are the new frontier - after the RBI allowed cooperative banks to launch acquiring services, NPST partnered with Cosmos Co-operative Bank to offer the full merchant lifecycle - device procurement, onboarding, field operations, compliance - to more than 1,500 cooperative banks with over 11,000 branches.
- Pay-per-use makes it high-margin - unlike the TSP business, PPaaS revenue is transaction-based or subscription-based, which management characterises as high-margin relative to the switch-licence model.
- Verticalised for lending and insurance - the Evok platform is being extended with tailored versions for NBFCs, mutual funds, and insurers, while a partnership with Mahindra Finance embeds the Evok SDK directly into a lender’s customer app.
3. Regulatory Technology: the AI fraud-cop that watches every transaction
NPST’s newest domestic engine is a suite of AI-powered tools that help banks and payment aggregators spot merchant fraud, resolve disputes, and underwrite risk - sold as a managed SaaS service that bundles technology, operations, and regulatory updates.
- First-of-its-kind merchant fraud detection - the Risk Intelligence Decisioning Platform (RIDP) is a cloud-native, AI/ML-powered 360-degree solution designed to reduce fraud and chargebacks for merchant acquirers, targeting an addressable pool of more than 500 acquiring institutions.
- Banks asked for it before it was for sale - RIDP was initially offered at no cost as part of the platform, but banks began requesting it for their existing systems, signalling standalone monetisation potential that has since converted into mandates from three banks and a leading payment aggregator.
- Disputes resolved in one place - the Online Dispute Resolution module lets banks manage transaction disputes across UPI, IMPS, NEFT, RTGS, mobile banking, and internet banking from a single interface, reducing operational chaos.
- Revenue starts in FY27 - the RegTech vertical is expected to begin contributing revenue in the coming financial year, backed by a bagged order book that already includes a large public-sector bank and an international central payment body.
4. International Business: exporting the India playbook to markets that pay per swipe
NPST takes the same switches, platforms, and RegTech tools it built for India and re-architects them for countries where merchant discount rates and interchange fees are structurally embedded, aiming for margins roughly double what it earns at home.
- Africa is the beachhead - after two years of collaboration with a central bank, NPST is implementing one of the largest digital-payments ecosystems on the continent, its first major international contract, covering design and deployment of a mission-critical national-scale payment infrastructure.
- Partner-led, asset-light - the go-to-market model uses a service-based entry: NPST revises its platform for local fit, retains product ownership, and lets a local channel partner handle service delivery, reducing the need for a large overseas headcount.
- Fee-based economics are the draw - unlike India’s zero-MDR UPI framework, international markets embed fees in every transaction, which is why management considers international margins of 30-35% or maybe 40% as high margin compared with 15-20% domestically.
- A Dubai subsidiary holds the fort - NPST Global Solutions LLC was incorporated in Dubai in April 2025, providing a base for Middle East and Asia engagements that already include signed PPaaS International deals.
Group structure and partners
NPST is a founder-led, board-governed company with a single overseas subsidiary, deep ties to India’s payment-rail operators, and a partnership model that extends its reach without building everything in-house.
- The company operates through its Indian parent and a wholly-owned subsidiary, NPST Global Solutions LLC, incorporated in Dubai in April 2025 with equity capital remitted in July 2025.
- The board is chaired by founder Deepak Chand Thakur (Chairman and Managing Director), supported by Joint Managing Director Ashish Aggarwal and Executive Director Savita Vashisht; independent director Ram Rastogi brings three decades of experience from SBI and NPCI, including pioneering work on UPI, IMPS, and BBPS.
- Strategic partnerships multiply distribution: a tie-up with Hyperface embeds credit-on-UPI capabilities, the Cosmos Co-operative Bank partnership opens the cooperative-bank segment for offline payments, and an exclusive Africa partnership with a global sales consultant provides on-the-ground access without a direct sales force.
- NPST is among the first technology service providers accredited by NPCI Bharat BillPay for Banking Connect Issuer and Acquirer Switches, and co-hosts workshops with NBBL to scale adoption of its Bank-in-a-Box model.
- The company raised Rs 300 crore from Tata Mutual Funds to fund international expansion and inorganic growth, and has board approval to migrate from the SME exchange to the NSE Main Board.
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