we are a lending startup in India - also a YC alumni (RedCarpetUp YC S15). We are (now) a regulated entity with specific licenses that took us a crazy amount o

we are a lending startup in India - also a YC alumni (RedCarpetUp YC S15). We are (now) a regulated entity with specific licenses that took us a crazy amount of time from the Reserve Bank of India. Two things - first, the business models of payment banks is kind of unproven. Those of us who are in the fintech space in India kind of agree that the regulators kind of screwed up here. I'm hoping you have answers to that. TL;DR - a payment bank cannot lend. Second, the regulatory structures in India are setup to look at license grants not as a consequence of capital. Even if you had a 100 million USD (and I know of specific examples here), there is very less likelihood of you getting a payment bank license unless you can prove out a gold standard team and board experience. Just to remind you, bank CEOs in India are appointed by the Reserve Bank. They are NOT appointed by founders or investors. One of the CEOs of a very large bank in India just got fired by the regulators for dancing around stockholding regulations - https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/banking/oh-yes-you-lost-your-ceo-for-greater-good-why-rbi-said-no-to-a-full-term-for-rana-kapoor/articleshow/65881229.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/financ... I feel there is a very low chance of you getting regulatory clearance for this. Indeed, we give out a t-shirt that says "Because, its regulatory" to fresh employees at RedCarpet ! We are tech founders, but we have spent countless hours sitting outside RBI doors trying to make case for several regulatory changes. We were one of the first to get license grants for non-standard lending risk policies to the unbanked in India (that's a billion people!). Write to me http://scr.im/redcarpetup http://scr.im/redcarpetup if you want to come work with us for a while. Maybe you will stay a while and listen to stories of regulatory pacman in India.