Skip to main content

icnlive

Menu
Menu
icn.lıve
WATCH LIVE. THINK BUSINESS.
Menu
X-twitter Linkedin-in Instagram Youtube

© 2026 ICN.LIVE

ICN.live

Salma Al-Tamimi

  • 3 min read

Make us preferred on Google

  • 3 min read

PUBLISHED BY ICN PRESS

  • Revolut’s India launch begins with a controlled beta for thousands of waitlisted users.
  • The Revolut app India offers UPI payments, e-money wallets, and several prepaid cards.
  • Paroma Chatterjee leads the rollout, targeting 20 million users across India by 2030.
  • India’s digital payments market gives Revolut one of its toughest global growth tests.

Revolut’s India launch has begun, with thousands of waitlisted users now testing the new app. The British fintech started this controlled beta ahead of a wider public release in India. Revolut confirmed that a few thousand customers already use the platform across the country today. Company access rolls out slowly to a small slice of roughly 450,000 waitlisted people. You can see why this matters, since India hosts one of the largest payment markets. India’s Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, has reshaped how people and businesses move money daily. UPI payments processed 23.2 billion transactions worth about $313.8 billion during May, government data shows.

How Revolut’s India launch reaches its first users

Beta users now reach UPI payments, e-money wallets, and several card options inside the app. Those cards include domestic prepaid cards, multi-currency cards, virtual cards, and disposable cards for spending. The prepaid cards Indian users receive now work for both local and travel spending needs. Revolut plans to add its Lifestyle and RevPoints features before it widens the rollout further. Joint family accounts stay off the menu here, since such products need a banking license. A Revolut spokesperson said the firm runs a controlled onboarding of its waitlist members. The team gathers feedback now to refine core features before a larger audience arrives later. Localized versions live on both the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store right now. Revolut earlier acquired Arvog Forex in 2022 to strengthen its regulatory base across the country.

Inside the app, licenses, and the digital payments market

The Revolut app India users download offers UPI handles, budgeting tools, and strong security features. Revolut has built its India business since 2021 and secured key licenses from the Reserve Bank. A prepaid payment instrument license lets the firm issue cards and link with UPI today. Paroma Chatterjee leads Revolut’s local operations and shapes the strategy behind this market push. Chatterjee said the company starts “with payments” because family finance offers strong growth room ahead. India’s digital payments market ranks among the most competitive and fastest-growing arenas worldwide today. Revolut wants to serve more than 150 million young, globally minded Indians aged 25 to 45. The company targets 20 million users by 2030 and at least $7 billion in transactions. Consumer interest keeps building, since the app saw nearly 820,000 downloads across India already. More than a third of those downloads happened in 2025 and early 2026, Sensor Tower estimates. Revolut leans on emerging markets for growth, with downloads in Brazil climbing 487% last year. Downloads in Thailand and Vietnam grew 40% and 52% during 2025, Sensor Tower data shows. Such numbers show why India holds a central place in Revolut’s long expansion plan.

Where Revolut’s India launch heads next

Revolut’s India launch still faces tough rivals like Paytm, Google Pay, and PhonePe nationwide. The firm invested over £40 million to meet India’s strict data sovereignty rules first. Revolut says it will open direct signups to every user in the near future. As I see it, Revolut’s India launch tests whether a Western neobank fits local habits. Your choice of payment app now grows wider as this global player enters the field. Revolut’s India launch will shape its global future if the market rewards steady growth.

TAGS
  • Global Markets, Revolut, Technology

EXPLORE MORE ON:

AICapitalPoliticsBankingHealth
Apple's iPhone Duo
  • iPhone

The iPhone Duo is Apple’s first foldable iPhone, and it opens like a small book into a 7.6-inch screen. Closed, you hold a 5.4-inch outer display that fits in a pocket. Both screens share the same aspect ratio, so a video or app scales cleanly as you move between them. Stand it up on a table, and it works hands-free for calls or video. Apple showed the phone on September 9 at its Surprise and Shine event in Cupertino, where new chief executive John Ternus led his first keynote. He said rival foldables often feel like two phones stuck together. The Duo tries to feel like one device that changes size when you need it.

What the screens and camera can do

Open the Duo and the inner display runs 50 percent larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max. A custom nano-texture finish cuts glare and hides the crease, the seam that has annoyed foldable owners for years. Peak brightness reaches 3000 nits, so the screen stays readable outdoors. Inside, an under-display FaceTime camera keeps the view whole, with no notch breaking the screen. The rear camera leans on a 48MP Dual Fusion system with a main and an ultra-wide lens. There is no telephoto, a trade Apple made to save room in the thin body. Smart Take reads the scene and snaps the photo when everyone poses, so you can stand in the shot instead of behind it. You can also shoot 48MP photos and 4K video at up to 120 frames per second.

iPhone Duo specs that matter for daily use

The iPhone Duo specs point to a phone built for long, heavy days. Inside sits the A20 Pro chip with a vapor chamber that spreads heat during games and video edits. Apple pairs it with a dual-battery design that fits more cells into the frame. You get up to 31 hours of video on the inner screen and up to 44 hours on the outer one. Plug it in, and it reaches 50 percent in about 20 minutes. A Grade 5 titanium frame and a precision hinge give the body its strength, and Touch ID moves to the side button in place of Face ID.

iPhone Duo prices are ridiculously high

Here is the part your wallet cares about. The iPhone Duo price starts at $1,999 for 256GB in the United States, which makes it the most expensive iPhone in the lineup. In the UAE, iPhone Duo starts at AED 8,499 for the 256 GB, AED 9,349 for the 512 GB, AED 11,049 for the 1 TB, and the laptop-price level of AED 13,599 for the 2 TB. Preorders open October 16, and the iPhone Duo release date lands on October 23. Apple plans a first wave across more than 70 countries, then adds 28 more on October 30. For comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 starts near $1,899.

Why the foldable iPhone arrives only now

Apple waited years while Samsung and others sold foldables. Now the foldable iPhone brings iOS 27 features built for two screens, like Split View and apps that respond to how you hold the phone. eSIM handles the connection, since there is no SIM tray anywhere. Apple Pencil support arrives later in 2026. That gap of a few weeks after the iPhone 18 Pro points to a slower, careful rollout for a harder build. If you have wanted a phone that turns into a small tablet without feeling clumsy, this is Apple’s answer, and you can hold one this month.

  • 3 min read
Work from Park initiative
  • Business

The Work from Park initiative puts bookable workspaces inside Dubai’s public parks, starting with Al Barsha Pond Park. Dubai Municipality announced the programme on 19 April 2026 and said it had signed two memoranda of cooperation to deliver it. One went to Group AMANA, which builds the units, and the other to Letswork LLC, which operates them.

Entrepreneurs, freelancers, small and medium-sized enterprises

The structure is a public-private partnership. Dubai Municipality provides the park and the mandate. Private firms handle design, construction, and daily operation. The municipality said the model gives the private sector a route into public facilities while each site keeps its role as a park.

Target users are entrepreneurs, freelancers, small and medium-sized enterprises, and anyone doing remote work in Dubai. Content creators get dedicated production rooms, which the municipality said are meant to strengthen their place in the emirate’s creative economy.

Letswork runs the booking side. Users reserve space through the Letswork app, check in on arrival and use one membership across the company’s network of venues. The offer covers desks by the hour, event space, podcast recording and production rooms for creators. Letswork will also run training programmes and group sessions for creative talent and new businesses.

How the Work from Park initiative is built

Group AMANA delivers the first site through its DuBox unit. DuBox builds the workspace modules in a factory, then transports them to the park and assembles them on site. The municipality said this shortens the build schedule, reduces waste and lowers the environmental footprint compared with conventional construction. Units can be reconfigured later as demand shifts.

The Al Barsha Pond Park site was scheduled to open in May 2026. Letswork now lists it as a bookable venue on its platform. The listing describes modular pods with high-speed Wi-Fi, power and climate-controlled seating, plus podcast studios and creative production rooms. Members can book day passes, meeting rooms and private offices under one Letswork membership.

Dubai Municipality said the Work from Park initiative would add more sites across the emirate later in 2026. Locations and opening dates for those have yet to be confirmed.

Bader Anwahi, CEO of the Public Facilities Agency at Dubai Municipality, said the partnerships combine advanced construction methods with private sector expertise to produce public infrastructure “that is flexible, sustainable, and aligned with modern lifestyles and work patterns.”

Richard Abboud, CEO of Group AMANA, said modular construction lets the company build efficient, adaptable units at speed.

Why the Work from Park initiative fits Dubai’s planning goals

The programme sits under three policy frameworks. Dubai’s 2040 Parks and Greenery Strategy targets 95 million park visits a year by 2040. Land use falls under the Dubai Urban Plan 2040. Economic targets through 2033 come from the Dubai Economic Agenda D33.

Omar AlMheiri, co-founder of Letswork, said the partnership would add dedicated creative spaces and podcast studios. He described it as a step toward changing where and how people in the UAE do flexible work.

Dubai Municipality describes the Work from Park initiative as the first of its kind. Existing Dubai coworking spaces operate from office towers, hotels and retail sites. This programme moves the format onto municipal parkland, with the municipality as host and a private platform as operator.

Outdoor workspaces in Dubai face one obvious constraint: summer heat. The Letswork listing addresses this with climate-controlled seating inside the pods. Demand across a full year of operation will show whether the format holds. The second site, once announced, will be the next signal of how fast the municipality intends to scale.

  • 3 min read
  • 0 min read
Load More News

Share this post

on your favourite social platforms

or copy the link