Shikra India: fintech website design for Indian startups

Shikra India is a business-banking platform for Indian founders, with current accounts, cards, treasury and payments in one workspace. The edition speaks the language of Indian finance: RTGS/NEFT, IFSC codes, lakh and crore, DICGC-insured partner banks and a DPDP-ready privacy policy with a named Grievance Officer.

Project facts

• Client: Shikra Fintech Pvt Ltd (fictional)
• Sector: Business banking and treasury for startups
• Markets: India, with headquarters in Bengaluru and a studio in Mumbai
• Services: Market localisation · Copywriting · Brand adaptation · Fintech website design · Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) · SEO foundations
• Templates: 10 page templates shared with every Shikra edition
• Stack: Hand-built HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript; one strings file and one theme file per market

The brief

Built for how Indian founders bank

Indian founders compare current accounts on RTGS/NEFT fees, minimum balances and sweep returns. They expect UPI, IMPS and NEFT to work together, and they want to see proof: DICGC insurance, a CIN and a Grievance Officer. The edition rewrites the product pages around those habits, adds a runway calculator in rupees and lakh, and replaces US banking terms with Indian ones throughout.

Designing for India

What actually changed between the US and this edition

• Story - US edition: US business banking for startups · India: Indian current accounts for private limited companies and LLPs
• Currency - US edition: $2,481,906.42 · India: ₹2,48,19,064.42; prose uses lakh and crore
• Payments - US edition: ACH and wire transfer · India: RTGS/NEFT, IMPS and UPI; IFSC codes
• Insurance - US edition: FDIC-insured · India: DICGC-insured up to ₹5 lakh; sweep up to ₹5 crore
• Treasury - US edition: Money-market funds and T-bills · India: Liquid mutual funds and government securities
• Calculator - US edition: Runway in dollars · India: Runway in rupees with lakh and crore examples
• Legal - US edition: SEC and IRS references · India: RBI, SEBI, DPDP Act 2023, Grievance Officer, CIN
• Look - US edition: Spruce, linen and brass; Fraunces + Hanken Grotesk · India: Indigo, marigold and clay; Poppins + Mukta (Devanagari-ready)

Brand adaptation

The same Shikra, with a local accent

Indigo carries the interface and marigold brings warmth to italics, with clay for secondary accents. Poppins and Mukta both include Devanagari, so a Hindi edition can follow without a new type system. The descriptor becomes Fintech, the usual term in Indian business banking.

Homepage and key journeys

The homepage opens on a live balance card showing ₹2,48,19,064.42 and recent RTGS/NEFT transactions. The search asks for a company name or IFSC code. Product cards cover current and savings accounts, cards, treasury and payments. The runway calculator is the most distinctive flow: type monthly expenses and cash in rupees, and it shows months of runway, net burn and the date cash runs out, with advice in plain English.

Compliance, accessibility and trust

• Privacy policy under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, naming Shikra as Data Fiduciary, with a Grievance Officer and the Data Protection Board.
• Footer with CIN U12345KA2026PTC123456 and a note that banking services are provided by DICGC-insured partner banks.
• Demo disclaimer: Shikra is a portfolio concept and offers no real banking services.
• Passes automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks on every page at 360, 390, 768 and 1440 px: no contrast failures, no unreachable controls, no horizontal scrolling.
• A language switcher built from hreflang sits in the header on desktop and in the footer on phones.

One system, twelve markets

Every visible string lives in one file per market, and every colour and typeface in one theme file. This edition needed no new templates or components: a strings file, a theme, regional photography and local legal content made it a different brand experience. For a fintech company with international plans, a new market becomes a content project rather than a rebuild.

Deliverables

• Market profile: language, formats, legal and seasonality
• Full localised copy across 10 templates, header, footer and forms
• Brand adaptation: palette, type pairing and logo descriptor
• 10 regional photographs (Pexels, credited in credits.json)
• Local legal content
• Accessibility pass (WCAG 2.2 AA, automated) and QA at four screen widths
• Portfolio media: stills, full-page captures, scroll video, OG image, brand board