Beams Fintech Fund: Sagar Agarvwal on Building India's First Growth-Stage Fintech Ecosystem
After 15 years in the venture capital industry and nearly $400 million deployed across 33 investments, Sagar Agarvwal saw a glaring gap in the Indian landscape. While global markets had multi-billion dollar funds dedicated solely to fintech, India—despite its rapid digital adoption—lacked a dedicated growth-stage fintech manager. This realization led to the birth of Beams Fintech Fund, India’s first sector-focused growth capital fund designed not just to provide checks, but to build a powerful ecosystem where banks, NBFCs, and founders collaborate to redefine financial services.
On the ELI Podcast, Sagar discusses the "Top-Down" approach that drives his fund, the massive potential of the "Next 100 Million" Indians coming online, and why he believes fintech is no longer just about lending and payments, but about deeply integrated infrastructure across every sector of the economy.
Beams Fintech Fund at a Glance
- India's First: Dedicated growth-stage (Series B/C) fintech fund.
- Target Corpus: $120 Million (approx. ₹900 Crores).
- Investment Ticket: $10M - $15M per company (including co-investors).
- Thesis-Driven: Focused on 36 sub-themes within the fintech ecosystem.
- Anchor Portfolio: Backing leaders like Niyo (Digital Banking).
The Trillion-Dollar Backbone
Financial services represent one-third of the global economy and occupy a similar weight in public market indices. In India, despite decades of growth, penetration across insurance, mutual funds, and credit remains below 10%.
"The opportunity is massive for anyone who can capture the remaining market share," Sagar explains. He attributes the current explosion to three catalysts: 1.4 billion people, the "Jio effect" (cheap internet), and the UPI revolution. "If we produced 100 unicorns from the first 70 million people online, imagine the outcomes from the next 140 million."
The "Top-Down" Bottom-Driven approach
Beams doesn't just wait for pitch decks; they actively hunt for winners in pre-defined categories. Sagar and his team identified 36 specific themes—ranging from Embedded Finance to RegTech and SaaS for Banks.
The Beams Selection Process
- Thematic Mapping: Identifying macro trends for the next 10 years.
- Category Shortlisting: Finding the top 3 market leaders in each of the 36 identified themes.
- Portfolio Funnel: Analyzing a shortlisted pool of ~808 companies.
- Due Diligence: Deep-diving into founder-business fit, revenue moats, and 10-year scalability potential.
Beyond the Front-End: The "Unseen" Fintech
While many see fintech as just app-based digital banking (like Niyo), Sagar is bullish on the "infrastructure" layer. Every major bank requires hundreds of services—from kyc onboarding and fraud management to GST compliance and AML checks.
Another area of focus is Enterprise Fintech—solutions for large, medium, and small enterprises to manage expenses, accounting, and account receivables. By "double-clicking" on these segments, Beams finds value far deeper than just customer acquisition.
An Ecosystem, Not Just a Fund
What differentiates Beams is its LP (Limited Partner) base. Sagar has brought in banks, NBFCs, and even fintech giants (including Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm as an investor) into the fund. This creates a ready-made platform for portfolio companies to find partners, build balance sheets, or even explore acquisitions.
"As a value-add fund, we enable integration partnerships," Sagar says. "Larger institutions can lend through our growing fintechs, and we help founders understand their gaps and hire the right management to solve them."
Bullish on the Next Decade
Fintech Weight: Sagar predicts fintech will grow from 10% of India's financial services today to at least 25% within ten years.
Untapped Niche: He cites Cross-Border Payments as a major unsolved problem, where users currently lose 5% to 20% in exchange fees and processing time.
The Meaning of Entrepreneurship
For Sagar, being an entrepreneur isn't limited by age or background—it is defined by Passion. "An entrepreneur is here to create an outcome and make a non-incremental change in the ecosystem."
His advice to future founders? Focus on solving problems at scale, particularly in areas like cross-border payments where emerging markets suffer from volatile currencies and slow transaction times. "If you believe in what you're building and have the power to go after it, the change will happen."