NPCI Expands Beyond Payments With AI, Blockchain-Focused Subsidiary

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has set up a wholly owned subsidiary, NPCI Tech Solutions Ltd (NTSL), to build capabilities in AI, blockchain, and digital financial infrastructure beyond its core payments mandate.

The retail payments operator has appointed Vishal Kanvaty, who has been associated with NPCI for nearly a decade, as the subsidiary’s MD and CEO.

NPCI said NTSL will serve as the group’s technology and innovation arm. Its remit will also include global capability centre (GCC) services and technology services for eKYC Setu, the Unified Ticketing Platform (UTP), and other digital public infrastructure (DPI) programmes.

According to NPCI, Kanvaty has led the development and commercialisation of several platforms that now fall within NTSL’s focus areas.

NPCI MD & CEO Dilip Asbe said advances in AI and other emerging technologies are opening up opportunities across digital infrastructure and financial services. The subsidiary has been established to pursue these opportunities and strengthen the group’s technology capabilities, he added.

NPCI did not disclose the subsidiary’s investment outlay, revenue targets, customer pipeline, or timelines for rolling out new services.

NPCI’s Emerging Technology Push

The formation follows a series of technology initiatives by NPCI. At the Global Fintech Fest in September, it launched AiNxt and AtOM, platforms aimed at helping enterprises build AI agents and automate workflows across the payments ecosystem. 

AiNxt enables enterprises to build, test, and deploy custom AI agents, while AtOM is designed to handle integration, change management, and partner onboarding across UPI, with digitally signed interactions providing audit trails. 

NPCI’s work in emerging technologies also includes a multi-year research partnership with IISc, announced in March 2024, covering AI and blockchain. The collaboration envisaged developing models and software prototypes, alongside workshops and training programmes. 

On the payments side, NPCI demonstrated an agentic AI framework for UPI at GFF 2025. The demonstration showed how user-authorised AI assistants could discover products, place orders, and complete payments within a single conversational flow. 

The new technology arm joins NPCI’s existing subsidiaries focused on international payments, bill payments, and BHIM. With NTSL, the group now has four wholly owned subsidiaries: NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd (NBBL), NPCI BHIM Services Ltd (NBSL), and NTSL.

The expansion comes alongside continued growth in its flagship payments network. UPI processed a record 25.47 Bn transactions in October, up 5.8% MoM, while transaction value increased 7.4% to ₹31.53 Lakh Cr. Average daily transaction value crossed ₹1 Lakh Cr for the first time.

This came ahead of the proposed introduction of merchant discount rate (MDR) charges on select UPI payments. NPCI deferred the rollout, originally scheduled for October 15, until after Diwali, with a revised implementation date yet to be announced. 

The post NPCI Expands Beyond Payments With AI, Blockchain-Focused Subsidiary appeared first on Inc42 Media.