Themed around Agentic AI, Tokenisation and Quantum, GFF 2026 is set to bring together around 500 investors, alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra and global fintech leaders. The previous year 2025 saw about 350 investors coming in.
The seventh edition of Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026 is expecting around 500 investors to attend the event, up from more than 350 investors who participated in the previous edition, G Padmanabhan – Member, GFF 2026 Advisory Council; Former Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India & Former Chairman, Bank of India said at a pre-event press conference on Thursday.The expectation as far as the investors are concerned is 500. Let’s say it’s 500,” Padmanabhan said.
The previous edition saw more than 350 investors, including family offices and other investors, while around 200 participated specifically in the investment programme, according to Sandeep Jhingran, Group Director, Fintech Convergence Council. He added that the final number for this year’s edition could be higher as registrations were still coming in.“All the big and small, including the family offices and everybody put together, that number was in excess of 350 who came in there. The 200 odd number was the one which actually participated in our investment business which happened,” Jhingran said.
He also said investors attending GFF typically look for startups at the Series A stage or beyond, with conversations initiated at the festival potentially taking a longer period to translate into investments.“Investors who come here, they generally look for startups which are up to series A or maybe beyond. And they look for these long-standing conversations. They may get initiated here,” Jhingran said.
The seventh edition of GFF will also see the participation of several senior policymakers, regulators and global financial leaders, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to grace the event. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, PFRDA Chairperson Sivasubramanian Ramann, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal and Department of Financial Services Secretary Sanjay Lohiya are among the senior Indian officials listed for the event.Industry leaders including Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani and SBI Chairman Challa Sreenivasulu Setty are also expected to participate. International speakers include BIS General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos, Seychelles Central Bank Governor Caroline Abel, Bank of England Executive Director Tom David Mutton, Banque de France Director Alexandre Stervinou and senior officials from central banks across Africa, Europe and Asia.GFF 2026 is scheduled to be held from September 8 to 11 at Mumbai’s Jio World Centre and Trident. The event is expected to draw more than 100,000 attendees, with 5,000-plus participating companies, 700-plus speakers, 400-plus investors and 350-plus exhibitors.
GFF 2026 will focus on “Potential to Impact: Agentic AI | Tokenisation | Quantum: Trusted, Connected, Global Systems for Inclusive Finance.”
Jhingran said the festival has increasingly become a platform where investors, venture capital firms and private companies come together to understand the fintech sector and explore opportunities.
“One big difference is, we have got investors to come and help us. A lot of VCs, a lot of private companies, we all attend here to meet and know about the sector,” he said.
