Finarkein Analytics Powers India's Account Aggregator Revolution with Flux Platform

India is building something unprecedented—a complete digital public infrastructure stack that starts with identity (Aadhaar), moves to payments (UPI), and now reaches its most critical phase: data sharing through the Account Aggregator framework. Nikhil Kurhe, co-founder and CEO of Finarkein Analytics, recognized this opportunity early. His company's Flux platform now powers 60+ financial enterprises to build data-driven journeys on this revolutionary infrastructure, transforming how Indians access credit, insurance, and financial services.

But what makes Finarkein's approach remarkable isn't just technology—it's an unwavering commitment to data privacy by design. While competitors hold data by default, Finarkein processes everything purely in memory, achieving SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and ISO Cloud Security certifications in record time. They're the only partner in their category with all three certifications combined.

This isn't just about making data access easier—it's about enabling a financial inclusion revolution where MSMEs can access credit by sharing their data digitally, where consumers get instant credit card approvals, and where India's digital public infrastructure becomes a model for the world.

From Nomadic Childhood to Tech Entrepreneur

Kurhe's journey to founding Finarkein wasn't linear. "I grew up all over the place—every couple of years, I ended up moving," he recalls. This included cities, states, and even countries—Surat in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, before finally settling in Pune for engineering.

This constant movement created a unique worldview. "Just when you felt like you're settling in, it's essentially a restart as you end up going to the next place and starting over," Kurhe explains. "Looking back now, I am very grateful for that experience because I strongly believe that everybody is a product of their experiences."

After completing computer engineering in Pune, Kurhe worked at a business intelligence company for a couple of years. While the data space interested him deeply, he realized something profound was happening in India.

"India is going through a once-in-a-lifetime sort of change as we build a lot of these open data standards and digital public infrastructure like Aadhaar, UPI," Kurhe observed. "I came across this RBI circular talking about the account aggregator framework, and that was the catalyst for us."

The Account Aggregator Framework: Explained

To understand Finarkein's significance, you first need to understand India's Account Aggregator (AA) framework. Kurhe breaks it down systematically:

Phase 1: Identity (Aadhaar)
"India started with an identity program where the idea was everybody should have a consistent database with digitally verifiable proofs of information for identity. Today, everybody in India has IDs with digital databases and can do Aadhaar-based authentications across various biometrics."

Phase 2: Payments (UPI, RuPay, NACH)
"Everybody has an identity, but there's a cost of financial transaction when dealing with cash. To really drive inclusion at the lowest tier, we needed an alternative rail of financial networks that work for the long tail. NPCI ended up building networks like RuPay (parallel network similar to Visa and MasterCard), bill payment systems, real-time payments, collections like NACH, and of course UPI."

Phase 3: Data Sharing (Account Aggregator Framework)
"The last piece missing was the data piece. Everybody has a digitally verifiable identity and a digital financial history by transacting online through these various rails. Can we offer rails to seamlessly share this financial data with financial product companies offering loans, credit cards, insurance, securities, wealth advisory, and so on?"

The Account Aggregator framework is a collection of APIs and protocols that defines how financial data should be represented and shared with regulated entities. "The key focused persona at inception was the MSME—the small and medium business which today still struggles to get working capital or credit," Kurhe explains. "These guys are accepting payments through UPI QR codes, so can we give them access to seamless credit by providing their data as collateral?"

The Flux Platform: Enabling Data-Driven Journeys

Finarkein's role in this ecosystem is clear: "Enabling regulated financial organizations to publish and consume this financial data and to make sense of it."

The Flux platform was built on a core thesis: "A sort of like a counterview that there will not be a one-size-fits-all when it comes to how this data is being used. Yes, how the data is represented is getting structured, but the kind of products, use cases, and data products to be built around this data would be very diverse even within the same org, and definitely between different orgs."

Real-World Impact: Where You've Seen Finarkein

Finarkein's platform now serves 60+ enterprises across the financial services spectrum. Their clients include Bajaj Finserv, Aditya Birla Capital group companies, SBI Card (public and private banks), and several AMCs.

If you've applied for an SBI credit card at airports, kiosks, or through agents, "there's a very good chance you would see the Finarkein logo and APIs powering some of these journeys where you're asked to upload a bank statement or additional financial data."

Similarly, "if you're trading and opening demat accounts and want to enable Futures and options, quite a few brokers today use our workflows and APIs to automate that reporting and compliances."

Data Security by Design: The Zero-Storage Architecture

With India's growing concern around data privacy and security—especially incidents involving Aadhaar data leaks and the broader challenge of data sovereignty—Finarkein took a radically different approach.

"Unlike some of the other companies we compete with, a lot of them tend to hold data by default," Kurhe explains. "We have taken this approach where we're processing data purely in memory. The data gets processed in real-time or near real-time and subsequently it's sent to the regulated entity. By default, we are not storing data at Finarkein."

This approach has significant advantages: "We were able to get a SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and the ISO Cloud Security audit done in record time. Today, in our category, we're the only partner who has all three of these certifications in place."

Beyond certifications, Finarkein implements "a very strict zero-trust architecture internally." Access to databases and internal systems is robustly controlled, with multiple layers of security.

Clarifying Data Leaks: The Source vs Holder Problem

Kurhe makes an important distinction about where data leaks actually occur: "Largely, most of these data leaks that we hear about in the media today very rarely are happening from the source. For example, Aadhaar data if it's being held at UIDAI—you will not hear a data leak happening from UIDAI."

"You'll hear it happening from other requesting entities or organizations which have collected a lot of the Aadhaar data who may not have had the best cybersecurity or infosec practices. Somebody's doing a lot of KYC, collecting a lot of data in the KYC funnel. Once that PII data and those copies are in your funnel, you ideally should have a fiduciary responsibility to keep that data secure. Unfortunately, sometimes best practices are not being followed, and that's where these challenges arise."

Beyond Finance: Healthcare, ONDC, and Global Expansion

While Finarkein started with financial services, they're expanding into adjacent sectors leveraging India's digital public infrastructure:

Healthcare (ABDM - Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission):
"We've been working on the healthcare space on the ABDM network ever since it was called a health stack a couple of years back. We have a few customers, mostly insurance companies, using our services for financial as well as health data."

However, healthcare presents unique challenges: "Health is a lot more fragmented and complex. In financial services, you have 50-100-200 large organizations with data structured and organized. Health is going to take a lot longer due to fragmentation in the supply and value chain."

ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce):
Finarkein works on the non-financial services vertical, participating in these open-source initiatives.

OCEN (Open Credit Enablement Network):
"We recently volunteered to build out the life insurance protocol on the OCEN network, and we should see that going very quickly."

Global Aspirations:
"Eventually, some of these ideas in some shape or form will also take shape in countries beyond India. What is the right to win in some of these other geographies as these ideas become like DPI becomes a soft power export?"

Kurhe points to MOSIP as an example: "MOSIP is doing a lot of identity programs with a lot of countries. We're excited to see payments and eventually the data rails to also end up in countries beyond India."

The Messy Middle: Scaling from 22 to 55 Employees

Finarkein is experiencing rapid growth. "This March, we were like a team of 22. We are almost a team of 55 now, and in the next four to six months, we'll be hiring an additional 30-40 people."

But scaling brings challenges. "Hiring is frankly what will make or break us. We're in that phase right now—the messy middle—going through a very sharp growth spurt. We have to get the right people but at the same time get them in a short window. We cannot afford to spend six months to fill every position."

For the zero-to-one journey, "having good networks, having diverse founders and co-founders coming from diverse backgrounds, and being able to pick up the phone and make calls when we needed great people to join us—has worked for us."

For the one-to-many journey: "We've had a lot of support from our investors who tend to have their internal talent and acquisition teams with partnerships in place. We've been able to leverage a lot of that from one of our investors like Nexus."

Entrepreneurship Lessons: Talk to Your Customers

For aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those transitioning from technical backgrounds like Kurhe did, his advice is straightforward but critical:

"Don't build a startup because you want to build a startup."

"It sounds like a cliché, but even in our case, I think it took us a while to really sit down with our customers and just talk to them. I would say we got really lucky that what we happened to build happened to be what the market needed."

The key lesson applies to both B2B and B2C: "Regardless of what segment you're building in, please, please, please talk to your customers as much as you can. That will just help you get to where you want to get to a lot faster."

Kurhe emphasizes that this isn't just about initial validation—it's about continuous direction: "Proactively share our roadmap—we do that now, but I wish we could have done that earlier and just get feedback and inputs because you have great relations with your customers."

Key Takeaways

Nikhil Kurhe's journey from nomadic childhood to building India's account aggregator infrastructure offers crucial insights:

For Fintech Founders: India's digital public infrastructure represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The stack (Aadhaar → UPI → Account Aggregator) is complete and ready for innovation. Build on these rails rather than reinventing them.

For Data Companies: Security by design isn't just a compliance requirement—it's a competitive advantage. Finarkein's zero-storage architecture enabled them to achieve certifications that competitors struggle with, while building inherent security into their platform.

For Scaling Startups: The messy middle between startup and scale-up requires different hiring strategies than zero-to-one. Leverage investor networks, build structured processes, but maintain the speed that got you here.

For All Entrepreneurs: Talk to your customers—relentlessly, continuously, proactively. You have innovation and speed going for you, but only customer conversations can point that energy in the right direction.

About the Guest

Nikhil Kurhe is the Co-Founder and CEO of Finarkein Analytics, a data intelligence company powering India's Account Aggregator revolution through the Flux platform. A computer engineer from Pune, Kurhe worked in business intelligence before recognizing the opportunity presented by India's emerging digital public infrastructure.

Under his leadership, Finarkein has grown from a startup to serving 60+ financial enterprises including Bajaj Finserv, Aditya Birla Capital, SBI Card, and major AMCs. The company achieved SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and ISO Cloud Security certifications in record time, making them the only partner in their category with all three certifications.

Kurhe's vision extends beyond financial services—Finarkein is actively building in healthcare through the ABDM network, contributing to ONDC and OCEN protocols, and preparing for global expansion as India's DPI model becomes an export opportunity. The company raised $1.5M in pre-Series A funding led by DSP Group Family Office in October 2025 to enhance their platform and security capabilities.

A strong advocate for data privacy by design, Kurhe built Finarkein on zero-storage architecture principles, processing data purely in memory without default retention. His philosophy: "Don't build a startup because you want to build a startup"—solve real problems by talking to customers continuously and letting their needs guide your innovation.