Four of us spent Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai meeting regulators, payments leaders and early-stage fintech founders, and co-hosted a founders breakfast with Digia on the side.
TL;DR
Global Fintech Fest 2026 ran from 8 to 11 September at Jio World Centre and Trident BKC in Mumbai. Osto went because fintech is one of the most regulated markets a startup can build in, and one of the most important markets for us. Our co-founders Karmesh Gupta and Praveen Gupta, with Sarthak Sharma and Sri Harish Rangaswamy, spent the week with regulators, industry leaders and founders, and co-hosted Breakfast and Conversations with Digia, an invite-only session for founders and operators.
Fintech founders carry a security and compliance load that most startups do not meet until Series B. That is why Global Fintech Fest 2026 was on our calendar, and why four of us were on the floor for it.
What Global Fintech Fest 2026 is
Global Fintech Fest is the largest annual gathering for fintech and financial services, and the seventh edition returned to Mumbai this September. It began as a virtual event in 2020 and has been fully in person in Mumbai since 2023.
| Detail | Global Fintech Fest 2026 |
|---|---|
| Dates | 8 to 11 September 2026 |
| Venue | Jio World Centre and Trident, Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai |
| Organisers | Payments Council of India, National Payments Corporation of India and Fintech Convergence Council |
| Supported by | RBI, SEBI, IFSCA and PFRDA |
| Theme | Potential to Impact, built on agentic AI, tokenisation and quantum |
| Scale | Over 1,00,000 visitors and delegations from more than 80 countries |
The room is what makes it worth the trip. Policymakers, regulators and central bankers sit alongside banks, NBFCs, insurers, payment networks, investors and thousands of fintech startups. Regulators use it to signal where policy is heading, and the industry uses it to respond. For anyone building in Indian financial services, it is the one week when the whole ecosystem is in the same few buildings.
Why fintech is a priority for Osto
Osto is a one-stop cybersecurity and compliance platform for startups, and fintech is where that matters most. A founder building a lending product, a payments layer or a wealth app answers to regulators and enterprise buyers long before most startups do. Bank partners send security questionnaires. Regulators expect documented controls, audit trails and incident reporting. Customers expect their financial data to be protected, and the DPDP Act now puts that expectation into law.
That load usually lands on a small engineering team with no security hire. Osto is purpose-built for exactly that team: VAPT, code and cloud security, and compliance automation for frameworks like ISO 27001, SOC 2 and DPDP in one platform, with a vCISO when a founder needs someone to own the programme. The aim is to make diligence-readiness the default state of the company, not a scramble before every partnership.
So we went to Global Fintech Fest 2026 with three groups in mind.
Regulators
Where policy is heading
Hearing first-hand what the ecosystem is being asked to prove on security, data protection and incident reporting over the next year.
Industry leaders
Banks, networks, platforms
Understanding what large institutions check before they partner with a young fintech, and where startups most often fall short.
Founders
Early-stage builders
Meeting the teams we build for, and hearing which security and compliance problems are costing them deals or sleep right now.
Who we met
Across Global Fintech Fest 2026, the team met leaders from payments infrastructure, banking and the regulatory side of the ecosystem, including Pravin Kumar of the National Payments Corporation of India.
For us, the thread through the whole agenda was simple. Every headline theme at Global Fintech Fest 2026, from agentic AI to tokenisation, raises a security question before it raises a product one. Who can reach the model. Where the data sits. How a breach gets reported, and how fast. The companies that can answer those questions early are the ones that get to scale.
Breakfast and Conversations with Digia
Alongside Global Fintech Fest 2026, Osto and Digia co-hosted Breakfast and Conversations, an invite-only side event in BKC, about two hundred metres from the venue. We invited founders and industry leaders across product, engineering and security for two hours before the conference floor opened.
The format was deliberately small. One table, no decks, no pitches and no panel. The talk covered what people are running in production, go-to-market at their stage, and the security questionnaire or audit that stalled a deal.
The team on the ground
Four people represented Osto: co-founders Karmesh Gupta and Praveen Gupta, with Sarthak Sharma from the Founder’s Office and Sri Harish Rangaswamy from sales. Between them they covered the sessions, the exhibition floor and the side conversations that tend to matter most at an event the size of Global Fintech Fest 2026.
What we are taking back
It was a productive week. We came back with new relationships across the regulatory and payments ecosystem, time with founders facing the exact problems we build for, and a sharper view of where fintech security is heading.
The takeaway
Fintech founders need security and compliance in place far earlier than the rest of the startup market, and they need it without building a security team first. That is the gap Osto exists to close, and Global Fintech Fest 2026 made the case for it more clearly than any pitch could.
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Frequently asked questions
When and where was Global Fintech Fest 2026 held?
From 8 to 11 September 2026 at Jio World Centre and Trident, Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai.
Who organises Global Fintech Fest?
The Payments Council of India, the National Payments Corporation of India and the Fintech Convergence Council, with support from the RBI, SEBI, IFSCA and PFRDA.
Why does a cybersecurity company attend a fintech event?
Because fintech startups face security and compliance expectations from regulators, bank partners and customers far earlier than most companies. Those are the problems Osto is built to solve.
Does Osto work with early-stage fintech startups?
Yes. Osto is built for teams without a dedicated security function, which describes most early-stage fintechs. It covers VAPT, code and cloud security, compliance automation and vCISO support in one platform.