Spice Route Legal

Managing Partners: Mathew Chacko, Praveen Raju

Number of Partners: 5

Languages: English, Hindi, Spanish, French, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Gujarati

Memberships

• International Bar Association
• IAPP
• ITechLaw

Spice Route Legal is a full-service law firm focused on: hyper-specialised industries such as (i) technology, media and telecommunications; (ii) lifesciences, pharmaceuticals and healthcare; (iii) energy and sustainability; (iv) financial services; (v) mobility, aviation, and defence. We provide exceptional levels of legally astute and commercial advice to participants in international trade and commerce and bring a unique approach to the table, designed to offer the best solution for legal and business challenges that our clients face across the world.

Our Financial Services Regulatory and FinTech practice is India’s largest dedicated team and one of the most prominent in the Asia-Pacific region, advising on the full spectrum of financial sector innovation.

We are counsel to some of India’s most innovative fintech startups, marquee global financial services institutions, leading technology companies, and high-growth businesses pioneering developments across digital lending, tokenisation, crypto-linked offerings, AI-driven solutions, digital identity, fraud management and prevention, and next-generation payments. The practice has advised some of the first-of-a-kind mandates, including several cutting-edge structures that are now widely adopted in the market.

Our lawyers have been deeply involved in shaping India’s modern fintech regulatory environment. We frequently engage with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the digital lending, payment and account aggregator frameworks, and several clarifications issued by the RBI reflect solutions and recommendations proposed by our team. Our deep insight into the regulatory priorities of the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities & Exchange Board of India, the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India, and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, enables us to guide regulated entities and market innovators through technology adoption, compliance requirements, and operational transformation – delivering clarity, efficiency, and regulatory alignment at every step.

Our expertise extends to the full lifecycle of fintech enablement – including product structuring, M&A and PE transactions involving fintech and regulated entities, regulatory strategy, contracting and technology acquisition, outsourcing, application development, and the integration of mission-critical systems. We have also advised on major banking and insurance digitisation initiatives, including multi-year overhauls of core technology stacks and large-scale technology partnerships with global providers. We regularly represent financial institutions on complex software procurement, outsourcing, and support services arrangements with the world’s most dominant banking technology providers.

Today, Spice Route Legal is a preferred partner for domestic and global financial institutions seeking to build, scale, and market technology-driven financial services in India. Our deep sector knowledge, strong regulatory relationships, and unparalleled experience across the fintech ecosystem enable us to deliver end-to-end, commercially grounded advice that helps clients confidently shape the future of finance.

Market-leading highlights –

• Advised India’s largest commercial bank on its partnership with a leading software company to create and launch India’s first digital-only bank.
• Advised a leading global fintech on data localisation requirements, especially (a) with respect to implications of disclosures on localisation to India-based banking partners; (b) cross-border data transfers for Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions screenings, and (c) contracts with large retail merchants in India.
• Advised one of India's largest private banks on structuring the use of Amazon’s AI-powered assistant, Alexa, for voice-enabled financial services, including licensing matters, regulatory compliance, and blockchain adoption.
• Assisted leading foreign banks in structuring their targeted marketing strategies in India for overseas banking and bancassurance services.
• Advised one of the largest insurance companies in the world on building its core tech stack for its insurance automation platform in compliance with IRDAI cybersecurity and outsourcing guidelines and with negotiating tech sourcing contracts with some of the largest technology companies in the world.

Practice areas:

• Corporate and M&A
• Private Equity and Venture Capital
• Data Protection, Privacy, and Cybersecurity
• Fintech and Financial Sector Regulatory
• Intellectual Property
• Litigation, Arbitration, and Dispute Resolution
• Labour and Employment
• Banking and finance

Sector focus:

• Technology, Media, and Telecommunications
• Lifesciences, Pharmaceuticals, and Healthcare
• Energy and Sustainability
• Mobility, Aviation, and Defence
• Financial Services

Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Delhi

[email protected]