Anshuman Dadheech: How FiatPe Built India’s Trusted Payment Powerhouse

An Exclusive Interview with Anshuman Dadheech, CEO of FiatPe, a digital payments innovator focused on transforming merchant payments across India

Anshuman Dadheech, CEO of FiatPe, leads a Mumbai-based fintech powerhouse revolutionizing merchant payments across India.

From powering MSMEs to corporates with seamless UPI solutions and 45M+ transactions, this interview uncovers his vision for digital India’s payment future.

What gaps did you see in the ecosystem that prompted you to build FiatPe, and how has your entrepreneurial journey evolved since then?

Anshuman Dadheech: India’s digital payments ecosystem has benefited enormously from the way NPCI has built and stewarded core infrastructure.

The focus on scale, stability, and interoperability has created a strong foundation that works reliably across the country.

As fintech builders operating on top of that infrastructure, our attention naturally shifted to what happens beyond the rails.

While transactions were becoming faster and more accessible, merchants still faced uncertainty regarding settlement clarity, reconciliation, and resolution during exceptions, which were daily operational concerns.

What stood out most was how critical timely human support was in those moments. When money is involved, automated responses are often not enough. Merchants need context, ownership, and reassurance when something does not reflect correctly.

That understanding shaped how we built FiatPe. We treated payments as a full lifecycle, from acceptance to settlement to reporting and resolution. Human support was not designed as a fallback. It was built into the responsibility of handling payments.

Over time, my journey evolved with this realisation. Early work focused on fixing visible issues. With scale, the focus moved to strengthening systems and ensuring that support remains consistent under pressure.

FiatPe has hit milestones like 45 million transactions and partnerships with 10 plus banks. What were the toughest early challenges?

Anshuman Dadheech: The toughest early challenge was earning trust when the product itself was still finding its rhythm.

In the early days, even small inconsistencies mattered. A delayed settlement or an unresolved issue could change how a merchant perceived the system. That taught us quickly that in fintech, trust is built through predictability and follow through, not ambition.

Regulatory compliance and banking partnerships demanded a similar discipline. Processes had to be clear, documented, and repeatable much earlier than we had anticipated. There were no shortcuts. Anything unclear eventually surfaced.

We started with a very small team, handling issues manually and learning where systems broke under real usage. Those experiences shaped how we built. Over time, the systems became steadier, the team grew, and the scale followed.

Looking back, the milestones are a result of patience and operational focus. The work was less about moving fast and more about getting comfortable with doing things carefully, day after day.

FiatPe offers instant UPI settlements, automated invoicing, bulk payouts, and smart speaker technology. What makes these stand out for merchants?

Anshuman Dadheech: From a merchant’s perspective, individual features matter less than outcomes. What they care about is cash flow, operational clarity, and ease of use. Instant settlements improve liquidity and confidence.

Automated invoicing and bulk payouts reduce manual effort and errors. Smart speakers provide real-time confirmation at the point of sale, which improves trust at the counter.

We have also introduced 3in1 recently to remove the hustle of maintaining multiple devices and enabling merchants to offer multiple payment options to their customers

What truly stands out is that all these capabilities work together through a single dashboard. FiatPe is designed for daily use, not occasional engagement, and the focus is on simplifying operations rather than overwhelming merchants with complexity.

What key policy measures would you like to see in the upcoming Budget?

Anshuman Dadheech: India’s digital payments ecosystem has reached this scale because policy, infrastructure, and execution have moved together over time.

That alignment is what has allowed platforms like UPI to grow quickly while still staying stable and trusted at population scale.

As usage deepens, the conversation also changes. Digital payments are no longer just about adoption. They are now everyday infrastructure. At that point, reliability, security, and resilience under sustained volumes start to matter even more.

From an operator’s perspective, long term strength comes from how consistently systems hold up as scale increases. It comes from being able to keep investing in security, monitoring, and operational readiness, without making access harder for smaller businesses.

In the end, the health of the ecosystem will depend on how well scale, sustainability, and trust continue to move forward together as digital payments become part of daily life.

As a CEO scaling a fast-growing fintech company, how do you balance strategic vision with day-to-day execution?

Anshuman Dadheech: One thing scaling really taught me is something quite counterintuitive. If decisions still depend on the CEO, scale is an illusion.

Early on, being involved in everything feels necessary. You have the most context, so you naturally step in. But as the organisation grows, that same instinct starts slowing things down. Decisions begin to flow upward, teams wait for validation, and accountability gets diluted.

The real shift for me was pushing decision-making closer to the work. The people closest to the problem usually have better answers than the management sitting further away from it.

Once that happens, strategy stops being something you talk about and starts showing up in everyday behaviour.

Today, my role is much less about executing and much more about creating the conditions for good decisions, being clear about ownership, removing friction, and protecting long-term focus.

At scale, leadership isn’t about being everywhere. It’s about building something that keeps moving forward even when you’re not in the room.

With plans for international payments and expanded AI, where do you see FiatPe in the next few years?

Anshuman Dadheech: In fintech, the most meaningful impact of AI is often invisible. It shows up in systems that stay stable, respond faster, and scale without disruption.

In payments, AI supports real time fraud detection, system monitoring, and smarter transaction routing. In a high volume market like India, this background reliability allows platforms to operate consistently, even under stress.

At its best, AI works as a support layer that absorbs complexity. It reduces reactive effort and frees teams to focus on judgment, accountability, and customer understanding.

While AI improves speed and efficiency, trust in financial services still depends on human oversight. Accountability cannot be automated when things go wrong.

AI is also shaping user experience by recognising patterns and context, simplifying journeys, and reducing friction. As adoption accelerates, responsible implementation becomes essential.

As AI embeds itself across fintech, transparency, data privacy, and fairness must remain central. Over time, AI will move from a differentiator to basic infrastructure, strengthening systems while keeping people at the centre.

What advice would you give aspiring CEO in India’s fintech space?

Anshuman Dadheech: A lot of young CEOs in fintech are already doing very good work. The energy and ambition in the ecosystem today is real.

Speaking from my own experience, the biggest shift for me has been understanding where my time actually makes a difference.

Early on, it is easy to stay busy and mistake activity for progress. The harder part is deciding what not to engage with.

How decisions are made under pressure matters more than how fast they are made. Teams take cues from consistency and calm, especially when things are uncertain.

As organisations grow, the role moves away from doing and toward enabling. That transition is not always comfortable, and it requires learning to trust people with outcomes, not just tasks.

There is no finish line to the role. It keeps evolving as the company evolves. Staying effective means being open to that change.

Anshuman Dadheech’s insights reveal FiatPe’s bold trajectory—scaling partnerships, next-gen POS tech, and merchant empowerment. As fintech evolves, his leadership positions FiatPe as India’s go-to for frictionless, secure payments, driving economic growth nationwide.

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