Australia's 2nd Most Valuable Startup Airwallex Shifts Ownership of Its India Biz To the Secretive Cayman Islands

Global fintech firm, Airwallex, touted as Australia's second most valuable startup, has shifted ownership of its India as well as its New Zealand businesses from Australia to the secretive Cayman Islands. 

Founded in 2015 in Melbourne, Airwallex has maintained a $US5.5 billion ($8.3 billion) valuation from investors. The payment firm offers solutions for global payments, treasury and expense management.

According to the figures lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Airwallex’s Australian company moved 100% of its shareholding in the group’s New Zealand business and 99.99% of the Indian business to the Cayman Islands on January 1. Indian law requires one share to remain in the country.

It is to be noted that the laws of the Cayman Islands provide protection for the privacy of the investors. They are not obliged to disclose the information of directors, officers and shareholders. The islands' laws also not required to submit financial records. This allows for maximum confidentiality, which acts as protection to individual assets and financial security.

Airwallex’s businesses around the world, including in Australia, are ultimately owned by a Cayman Islands entity that is required to disclose almost no information publicly.

In 2018, Airwallex moved headquarters from Melbourne to Hong Kong and turned down a US$1 billion acquisition bid by fintech giant Stripe.

Now in a latest, Airwallex had shifted its primary office to Singapore. However, the company will continue to file its audited financial statements with Australia's ASIC as required said a report by Australian media outlet citing an Airwallex spokesperson.

Airwallex currently has 200 staff in Australia and 1,400 globally, and services customers including Qantas and SHEIN.

One can use Airwallex business account to send money in Indian Rupees to India in just one business day.

Singapore-based Panthera Growth Leads $45M Series D Funding in Innoviti

Mr. Rajeev Agarwal, CEO & Founder, Innoviti

Singapore-based growth equity firm Panthera Growth Partners (PGP) is the lead investor in a $45M combination Series D fund-raise by Innoviti Payment Solutions Pvt Ltd, India’s leading Collaborative Commerce Platform.

Panthera has invested $15M from its recently announced Fund II, along with new investors including Alumni Ventures, Patni Family Office and existing investors FMO and Bessemer Venture Partners, Netherlands. Innoviti has also raised debt from Trifecta Capital in this round. A clutch of individual investors such as Sanjoy Bhattacharya, Bharat Jaisinghani, and others also participated in this funding round.

Digital businesses are finding it hard to scale up profitably, Innoviti provides a collaborative commerce platform that helps them collaborate with other businesses and acquire customers together. They can partner to turn payment transactions into new and unique purchase tools that urge consumers to buy better products and more products, right at the point of purchase. Enriching payment channels with data technology, Innoviti’s collaborative commerce platform is ushering in a new wave of sales acceleration tools for digital businesses.

More than 20,000 retailers from 2000 cities participate in Innoviti's platform, which handles more than 90 million unique customers' purchases each year. Innoviti processes over Rs 75,000 Cr. ($10 billion) in annualized purchase volume and holds a commanding market share of > 70% in the enterprise sector. The company offers grocery, fashion, healthcare, and electronics retailers with category-specific purchase solutions. Launched in 2021, Innoviti’s GENIE product for mid-market mobile retailers has seen a runaway success by providing attractive affordability (EMI/BNPL) solutions for consumers. It has already clocked more than Rs. 1000 Cr. of annualized GTV.

The funds raised will be used to expand the company’s mid-market product lines in electronics, fashion, and grocery. It will also be utilized for building products on top of UPI payment channels, enhancing product distribution, and making strategic acquisitions in the marketing technology and data sciences fields. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Innoviti in this transaction.

The company plans to double revenues in 2022–2023. The enterprise division of the company is already profitable, and it expects to reach total break-even within the current financial year.

Rajeev Agrawal, CEO, Innoviti, said, “We are happy to have Panthera join, guide, and support us in our journey of becoming the purchase partner to every Indian. PGP has had a track record of backing highly differentiated businesses that have created lasting value in the Indian start-up ecosystem. We are super excited that they decided to back us and look forward to the same magic here. One needs to design easy-to-use flexibility with military grade reliability and that too at scale for exceptional customer experience, we are proud to have done that. Our four patents, including one US patent are proof of that. This has translated into our collaborative commerce platform powering more than 70% of purchases that happen digitally in enterprise retail today.”

Panthera GP was founded in 2021 and recently announced the first close of its USD 250 million second Fund. Fund I, has backed sector leading companies such as BigBasket, Pepperfry, Zivame, OfBusiness, etc.

Panthera’s Founder and Managing Partner, Shilpa Kulkarni, said, “As a growth-stage investor focused on disruptive technology led businesses, we are excited to partner with Innoviti. Innoviti’s cutting edge solutions help turn simple payment transactions into powerful purchase tools. We look forward to joining Innoviti on the journey to become a purchase partner for every consumer.”

“Our solutions are crafted for Indian retail, building in nuances of Indian consumers and merchants. We are excited about how our platform is helping digital businesses struggling with high costs of conversion (due to higher competition) find new ways of growing profitably. This is a problem not only for Enterprises, but also for Mid-Market businesses who are facing increased competition from large players. This customer centricity and a relentless focus on excellence has helped us become the most capital efficient company in this space. With the current Series D, we hope to become a sustainable business and list on the exchanges over the next couple of years,” Rajeev Agrawal added.

NTT DATA Payment Services India (Formerly Atom Technologies) Raises $12 Mn from Its Parent

Mr. Dewang Neralla - CEO, NTT DATA Payment Services India Ltd

• Funds to spur business expansion plans
• To support foray into newer segments such as Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit
• To explore potential Merger & Acquisition (M&A) opportunities

NTT DATA Payment Services India (erstwhile Atom Technologies Ltd.), a leading end-to-end payment service provider, today announced that it has raised INR 900 million ($ 12 million) from its parent company NTT DATA Corporation in a major push to its ambitious plan for the next phase of growth, amidst expanding digital payments landscape in India.

Dewang Neralla, Chief Executive Officer, NTT Data Payment Services India Ltd, said, “With India being one of the core markets for NTT Data, this capital infusion will further strengthen our payments’ business and is in tandem with our long-term growth strategy. As there is a huge untapped market, we will explore both organic as well as inorganic opportunities. The funds will only give us further impetus to our growth momentum. Further fund infusion will be decided based on the future opportunities.”

Shinichiro Nishikawa, Head of Global Payments & Services Division at NTT Data Corporation, said, “The capital infusion reinforces our firm’s commitment to the growth of digital payments in India. The conducive environment in the Indian market and seeing the quick adoption of digital payments channels, our confidence has grown manifold and gives us a fresh impetus for further investment as the need arises. Our vision for NTT DATA Payment Services India is to emerge as one of the top three Payment Service Providers in the country in the times to come through better services and superior products.”

NTT DATA Payment Services India is part of NTT DATA Corporation, one of the globally top 10 IT service providers, headquartered in Japan. With the new funds, the company is looking to foray into newer segments such as Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit, apart from exploring the potential Merger & Acquisition (M&A) opportunities. Leveraging the parent company’s capabilities, NTT DATA Payment Services India is also initiating cross border commerce, thereby connecting India and global customers.

India has been one of the fastest growing markets for adoption of digital payments with more than 20 million merchants currently using some or the other forms of digital payments. This is slated to grow further to onboard additional 30-40 million merchants.

NTT DATA Payment Services India aids merchants to provide a seamless digital payment experience to customers, via both online and offline channels. The company caters to more than 6 million merchants in sectors such as education, government, retail, BFSI, healthcare, among others.

The company, which has recently been rebranded, grew by more than 100% in revenues in FY 2021-22. In the same fiscal, the transaction volume surged more than double as compared to the same period in the previous fiscal.

About NTT DATA Payment Services India Ltd.

NTT DATA Payment Services India Ltd., formerly known as Atom Technologies Ltd., is an end-to-end payment service provider offering a myriad range of payment solutions through online and offline platforms via point of sale, payment gateway, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and mobile applications. The company offers a host of digital payment solutions tailor-made to cater to the needs of its merchants such as point of sale, online payment gateway, mobile applications, wallets, BNPL, IVR, QR codes and white-labelled solutions. Being a veteran in the payments industry, the company services more than 6 million+ merchants, and has processed more than 100 million transactions, worth INR 800+ billion, annually. Visit us at www.nttdatapay.com

About NTT DATA

NTT DATA – a part of NTT Group – is a trusted global innovator of IT and business services headquartered in Tokyo. We help clients transform through consulting, industry solutions, business process services, IT modernization and managed services. NTT DATA enables clients, as well as society, to move confidently into the digital future. We are committed to our clients' long-term success and combine global reach with local client attention to serve them in over 50 countries. Visit us at nttdata.com

Innoviti Becomes India's 1st Payments SaaS Firm to Receive Coveted SOC3 Seal of Excellence for Adhering to Trust Services Principles

Reaffirms commitment to excellence in adhering to availability and processing integrity of its systems and processes

• Innoviti announced today that it has been awarded the SOC Compliance Seal (SOC2 and SOC3 reports for uniPAYNEXT application) as per the AICPA's SSAE 18 standards issued by an independent Third-Party CPA firm (Ernst & Young Associates LLP). This is in recognition of Innoviti's software and processes conforming to standards of excellence in managing security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of all shared data and information.
• Innoviti processes over US$ 6.5 billion of annualized offline merchant payment volume (~5% of India's offline merchant volume, based on RBI data), turning payment transactions into business collaborations by creating software that brings merchants, banks, brands together to create new and unique ways of providing superior experiences to their common consumers. 
• Innoviti's payment solutions provide services to marquee clients such as Reliance Retail, Tanishq, Lifestyle, Max Retail, Shoppers Stop, Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Hospitals, Manipal Hospitals and over 400 other national and regional retail chains. Transactions originate from over 100,000 points of transaction from 1000+ cities, with the 2X higher volume from every point of transaction than national average. These transactions are in turn connected to more than 100 banks and brands, creating a complex intelligent network of networks.
• Under SOC3, Innoviti's assertions about a) detection of communication failure and auto-switching to alternate communication means, b) detection of banking and other partners response failures and auto-switching to alternate providers using acquirer fallback feature, c) procedures for recording and displaying transaction time and d) procedures for configuring promotion schemes (such as least cost routing, cashback and EMI schemes) have been evaluated and found to be meeting the strict trust criteria of AICPA. 
• This development is in continuation of Innoviti's Series C fund raise, one of the end-uses of which was to enhance the software technology to meet the highest standards of systems and process delivery. This not only helps customers reduce anxiety, but also provides them highly differentiated services at scale to drive extra sales and extra customers.

"Processing payments reliably requires managing quality at scale. Rather than just making claims about our superior reliability and marketing service capabilities, we wanted to have an independent authority validate the same. We are proud to become the first Indian payments SaaS company to receive this seal of excellence.

SOC3 is the most definitive seal when it comes to adhering to principles of trust services. It establishes the organizations unquestioned commitment to excellence in managing availability and processing integrity of systems and processes, besides security, confidentiality and privacy of shared data and information. We subjected our systems and processes around reliability and promotion configurations and management to the strict principles of AICPA and are assertions about our methods and systems have been found to be true.

A key differentiator for us has been developing sophisticated technology and delivering it through simple, exceptionally crafted payment experiences. This is hard, very hard to put together. We are proud to have done that.

We are committed to ensuring that our marquee customers and partners get the best possible payment solutions on this planet, this seal is a huge endorsement of our mission," - said Mr. Gaurav Mehrotra, Vice President, Technology, Innoviti.

About Innoviti Payment Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Innoviti Payment Solutions Pvt. Ltd. has been a pioneer in the use of technology to add intelligence to payment transactions, helping extract the full power of digital payments to drive business growth. As consumer centric businesses transform themselves digitally, Innoviti believes that the point of payment will play a pivotal role in connecting merchants to brands and banks, enabling them to discover and deliver new and unique experiences to their common customers. Innoviti's indigenously developed platform processes over 6.5B$ of offline merchant payments from over 1000+ cities in India, with a volume throughput that is 2X of the country's average. The company is winner of several awards including Reliance's Most Promising Growth Consumer Finance Award for its #KuchBhiOnEMI innovation in 2019. The company has several national and international patents filed for its technology with two awarded. Catamaran Ventures, India, SBI Capital, Japan, Bessemer Ventures, USA and FMO, Netherlands are investors in the company.

Mosambee Receives India’s 1st Certification for Contact and Contactless Card Payment Transactions on Smartphones and Tablets

Business Wire India UL, a global safety science company, announced that Mosambee, a payment solution company, is the first company in India to have their software-based personal identification number (PIN) entry product, commonly known as PIN on Glass, certified for compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) standard. PCI allows for contact and contactless card transactions with PIN entry on merchants’ mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, using a secure PIN entry application. In earlier point of sale (PoS) solutions, the PIN was entered on the payment terminals only. Mosambee’s solution supports all payment schemes including RuPay, Visa and Mastercard. This ‘Made in India’ solution will be a plug-and-play option for many of the banks and acquirers already connected to Mosambee. Ensuring product compliance following certification may help to fuel opportunities for businesses and institutions to expand and accept payments. It also helps enable small businesses to compete more effectively while enhancing overall customer service.

Commenting on the certification of the new solution, Mr. Sameer Chugh, Co-Founder of Mosambee, said, “The certification strengthens security and builds trust in digital payments acceptance on smartphones and tablets. The PIN on Glass solution allows a merchant to now download an acquirer application from the Android or iOS app stores instead of focusing on hardware terminals. With its rich experience in the payments industry, UL was an instrumental advisor in our commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) device from a concept to product launch.”

A wide network of subject matter experts from various geographies at UL’s PCI SSC recognized laboratories performed the PCI Security Standards Council’s (SSC) Software-Based PIN Entry on COTS (SPoC) testing requirements for the Mosambee solution.

Mr. Suresh Sugavanam, Vice President and Managing Director of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa at UL, said, “We are proud that this certification enables India’s vision of a cash-lite society through expansion of payment acceptance infrastructure in India. The PCI certification helps local companies to develop innovative and smart payment devices and build trust in the security of payments. At UL, we continue to focus on building best-in-class testing platforms and compliance solutions to help bring more secure digital payment products to the market.”

London-based Fintech Firm Sokin Enters India with Razorpay Partnership

Sokin, the new generation fintech payment firm, has signalled its intention to become a market leader in India, as it inks a significant deal with Razorpay, the leading full stack financial solutions company to enter the Indian market.

Sokin will work with the RazorpayX, the fintech giant's Neobanking arm, to provide its clients with a fully operational business banking service including current accounts which can be seamlessly integrated with Sokin's simple app, or online-based platform, which allows multiple international transfers with no hidden costs, all for a fixed monthly fee.

Vroon Modgill, CEO at Sokin, knows the link with RazorpayX will offer significant cost savings for Indian nationals and businesses based around the world. He commented: "The remittance and transfer market into India is very important. The deal we have signed, for the first time, will allow anyone to send money home with no additional or recurring hidden costs. We offer users monthly one off subscription fees to enable money transfers from over 150 countries and in more than 35 different currencies, without adding repeat costs or marking-up exchange rates. Through this partnership with Razorpay, the service will now be available for everyone in the Indian market to use."

The Sokin and Razorpay payment gateway will give clients a fast, secure and compliant way to move money back into their home country. It is the first partnership between Razorpay and a European based payments company, which will help millions of people who have family members working overseas.

Shashank Kumar, CTO and Co-founder of Razorpay said, "The Indian payments and money transfer market is undergoing significant change driven by innovation and fintech investment, which is improving the services and products available to customers. The Indian FinTech sector is at its exciting best right now and we are very excited about developing this relationship with Sokin at such a ripe time. With our association with Sokin, we hope to together make real-time, intelligent business banking solutions accessible to the businesses and people living overseas who will be able to save money and time when making remittances."

Sokin allows users to make unlimited payments and transfers for one low monthly fee, starting as low as INR 499. There is no mark-up on transactions and average prices are 20% lower than other existing payment solutions. Fast and secure payments are made through Sokins app covering a range of business and consumer clients.

For more information, please go to www.sokin.net.

About Sokin

Sokin is a next generation financial service provider which enables global payments for both consumers and businesses. Sokin believes in giving consumers the power to make payments and transfer money as many times as they want per month for one fee. Whether it's sending money back home or transfers to friends or even settling with businesses using Sokin is quick and easy.

The current options for transferring money internationally are often complicated and expensive, with often a lack of transparency in the fees being paid. Sokin's transparent fixed monthly cost, with no hidden charges, allows users to make payments in over 200 countries and exchange money in over 150 countries in more than 35 different currencies.

The Sokin app is available to download and customers can sign up to receive service updates.

About Razorpay Software Private Limited

Razorpay, a full-stack financial services company, helps Indian businesses with comprehensive and innovative solutions built over robust technology to address the entire length and breadth of the payment and banking journey for any business. Established in 2014, the company provides technology payment solutions to over 1Mn+ businesses. Founded by alumni of IIT Roorkee, Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, Razorpay is the second Indian company to be a part of Silicon Valley's largest tech accelerator, Y Combinator. Marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, Y Combinator and MasterCard have invested a total of $106.5 Mn through Series A, B and C funding. Around 33 angel investors have invested in Razorpay's mission to simplify payments and banking and redefine how finance works in India.

Razorpay Launches Payment Buttons for SMEs - Now Integrate Payment Gateway in Less than 5 Mins, No Developer Support Needed

Empowering Startups to accept payments on their own website, Razorpay, the leading full-stack financial services company, today launched Payment Buttons. Payment button enables businesses and freelancers to add a single line of code on their website or blog and go live with an integrated payment gateway, in less than 5 minutes.

Amid salary cuts, layoffs and downsizing of businesses in this COVID-era, a new set of micro-entrepreneurs - including freelancers and individual-run businesses are on the rise. In the last 5 months of the lockdown, Razorpay witnessed a 30% month-on-month growth in payments from micro-entrepreneurs. Having spoken to over 200 Startups & Freelancers during Covid, Razorpay found that this underserved business community needs a customised payment solution which is easy and fast to implement, requiring no technology expertise or dependence on third party vendors for receiving payments. This led to the launch of Razorpay Payment Buttons - a platform which converts the capabilities of a full-stack payment gateway into a payment button, requiring no developer support and giving end-users a simple, fast and secure checkout experience.

In addition, Razorpay's Payment Buttons will enable new growth avenues for the micro-entrepreneur community by supporting 100+ currencies for international payments. The product helps businesses to send automated receipts to customers without any manual intervention and is compatible with leading website builders and content management tools.

Commenting on the launch, Shashank Kumar CTO & Co-founder of Razorpay said, "The current situation has got all businesses feeling the pain to varying degrees, but it's independent businesses that are hurting the most. At Razorpay, one of our immediate priorities is to help Startups and freelancers weather this storm with intelligent payment solutions to build a more resilient business. Solutions such as Payment Buttons empower startups and freelancers to focus on their business and their customers and not worry about having a digital presence and accepting money without integrating a payment gateway. We want to be their growth partner especially in these tough times and so we will continue to deliver new and compelling payment solutions that will meet the increasing digital, 24x7 demands of businesses and their customers. We're excited to see businesses, freelancers and homepreneurs leverage this solution and scale their business in India and across the globe. We predict a 10x growth in demand for Payment Buttons by the end of 2020."

Deepak Kanakaraju, Founder and CEO of DigitalDeepak and PixekTrack said, "It took less than 5 minutes to add a button on our website. Since then we have seen a definite upswing in our conversion numbers. Having a digital presence is more important than ever, I believe micro-entrepreneurs and everyone who is starting their own business will definitely stand to reap the benefits of a product like Payment Buttons."

Razorpay's Payment Buttons provide businesses the flexibility of accepting payments for multiple products, services and events with different price ranges - all through a single button. The company hopes to help businesses save time, money, and resources by integrating this product.

About Razorpay Software Private Limited

Razorpay, a full-stack financial services company, helps Indian businesses with comprehensive and innovative solutions built over robust technology to address the entire length and breadth of the payment and banking journey for any business. Established in 2014, the company provides technology payment solutions to over 1Mn+ businesses. Founded by alumni of IIT Roorkee, Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, Razorpay is the second Indian company to be a part of Silicon Valley's largest tech accelerator, Y Combinator. Marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, Y Combinator and MasterCard have invested a total of $106.5 Mn through Series A, B and C funding. Around 33 angel investors have invested in Razorpay's mission to simplify payments and banking and redefine how finance works in India.

Mswipe launches "Bank Box" to Revolutionize the Digital Payment Landscape for SMEs

• New affordable offerings comprising of zero rental and zero MDR solutions
• Small businesses can collect and pay digitally even without a bank account
• Enters issuance business with Mswipe Moneyback Card to help merchants earn as they spend
• One-time digital KYC for hassle free and instant signup

Mswipe announced today the launch of Bank Box, a digital acceptance and payment solution designed to meet the cost-centric needs of MSMEs and merchants, as well as provide for a seamlessly integrated experience. Through this launch, Mswipe aims to pave the way for a futuristic payment solution platform and address key challenges that merchants and MSMEs face, with recurring costs on POS terminals like PoS rentals and Merchant Discount Rate (MDR).

Mswipe, India’s largest merchant acquirer with a network of 6.75 lakh POS and 1.1 million QR merchants, set out with the vision to build a cutting edge product – one that combines their acquiring and issuing platforms into a one-stop-shop, “Bank Box”, which enables easy signup, instant activation of the terminal and lifetime zero rental and zero effective MDR for merchants.

Manish Patel, Founder and CEO, Mswipe said, “COVID-19 has significantly impacted the earnings of small businesses, which in turn has led to curbed expenditures from their end. As a market innovator, Mswipe is helping MSMEs and merchants control costs incurred while accepting digital payments and further incentivize them to make digital payments. Essentially, Mswipe’s Bank Box facilitates small, medium and micro businesses to break into the digital ecosystem at the lowest possible TCO and sign up - even if they do not have a bank account.” 

With a one-time digital KYC, businesses can choose between Bank Box Go - a POS solution with zero rental and zero MDR or Bank Box Lite - a QR solution with 0 rental and 1% cashback on all transactions and instantly go live. In both offerings a merchant gets a UPI QR and a Moneyback Card. Bank Box Go additionally provides an affordable mPOS capable of accepting chip + pin and contactless card payments. For Bank Box Go merchants have to pay a one-time fee of Rs. 4,000 plus taxes while for Bank Box Lite, they pay only Rs.199 plus taxes.  

Sameer Hoda, President, Strategy and Operations, Mswipe said, “With Bank Box we have democratized the digital acceptance and payments ecosystem for the smallest of businesses by giving them a choice. With Mswipe now both an acquirer and issuer, we have provided an end-to-end digital enablement of MSMEs and merchants and empowered them to join the Digital Bharat movement.”

While mPOS allows acceptance of multiple modes of payments including UPI, Visa, Mastercard and American Express, mQR accepts payments from more than 150 UPI and mobile banking apps like PayTM, Axis Bank and BHIM among others. To spend digitally, merchants can load their Mcard with up to Rs. 1,00,000 per month 

Mswipe is targeting merchants with an average daily digital collection of Rs. 2,000 - Rs.2,500 in tier 3-4 markets and Rs. 8,000 - Rs. 10,000 in Metro and semi-urban areas.

About Mswipe:

Mswipe aims to be India’s largest financial services platform for SMEs and merchants by providing seamless mobile POS and value-added Services. It is the largest independent mobile POS merchant acquirer and network provider with 6.75 lakh POS and 1 million QR merchants across the country. Mswipe offers a host of POS solutions for all types of payment acceptance - cards, wallets, mobile payment apps and bank apps, contactless and QR payments. Headquartered in Mumbai, Mswipe began operations in 2011. Its key investors include B Capital, UC-RNT, Falcon Edge Capital, Matrix Partners India, DSG Partners and Epiq Capital.

PingPong Payments India Marks its 1st Anniversary

US-based Fintech company, PingPong is celebrating its 1st anniversary of establishment in India. The global payments unicorn PingPong Payments had started its India operations last year, with its head office in Bangalore. In the last year, PingPong India has partnered with e-Commerce giants such as Amazon, Shopify, Wayfair to promote Indian Sellers and help them expand their e-Commerce business across the globe. In addition to e-Commerce merchants, PingPong has introduced an International Payment Platform for freelancers as well as offline exporters in India.

Commenting on their journey so far, Sidharth S. Prasad, Director-India BD and Partnerships, said, "We have received an overwhelming response from the Indian market so far. PingPong India has been entrusted by hundreds of e-Commerce sellers, exporters, and freelancers. In the first year itself we have acquired significant market share in the global e-Commerce payments segment, and we target to assume market leadership in the next couple of years. With the introduction of new payment options for Freelancers, Offline Exporters and App Developers, we are hopeful to grow our transaction volumes rapidly by end of the year 2020.

[caption id="attachment_149734" align="aligncenter" width="581"] PingPong India Launch Event 2019 in Jaipur[/caption]

PingPong's success has been driven by the efficiency it brings to global e-Commerce sellers' payment costs; for many of its customers PingPong has been known to reduce the charges of international remittances by over 80% thereby helping sellers keep more profits. PingPong has also enabled global sellers with product suites like VAT payments in UK and EU and payments to suppliers. This year PingPong launched the AED, SGD and MXN currencies' receiving accounts, becoming the outstanding payments provider in India to do so. Another persistent pain point of Indian global sellers has been issuance of FIRCs, PingPong took this issue head on and has established a seamless digital FIRC issuance process making it a hassle-free experience for sellers.

Amid the pandemic, though the e-Commerce segment saw some impact, freelancers in India have seen a spike in their demand. While majority of freelancers receive international payments directly from platforms, they skip to calculate the high conversion charges which is incurred while receiving foreign remittance. Most of the time this fee goes unaccounted which leads to reduction in margins. By receiving direct payments from platforms many freelancers end up incurring conversion charges up to 4%.

PingPong Payments India has introduced a unique solution for freelancers in India who are working with International platforms or clients. Unlike other players, PingPong charges up to only 1% fee to receive international payments, thus accruing a savings of around 50% on conversion charges and platform fees.

During early July 2020, the parent company of PingPong Global Solutions celebrated its 5th Anniversary. With a humble beginning in 2015 in New York, today PingPong is the sophisticated third-party payments company supporting global Amazon sellers and can be used on 14 Amazon sites worldwide. Since its inception, PingPong has helped the seller community save 70 per cent of the cost incurred in the form of fees for Amazon and other platforms - which roughly saves $1.6 billion from 2016 to 2019 compared to the previous services charge.

"We believe that India has a lot to offer to the world and Indian export business is at the cusp of seeing new heights. With increasing focus on Make in India and improvements in ease of doing business ranks, The Indian selling community is going to be a dominant force in world trade. Our payment solution which is focused on security, compliance and cost reduction is surely going to be a tool for gaining competitive advantage for the sellers. We are here to work with the Indian community and help take the India story to every corner of the world," said Mr. Kenny Tsang, Managing Director PingPong Global Solutions in USA.

PingPong has been expanding its portfolio in different market segments. Recently, the company has launched its Payment Gateway in India supporting sellers selling globally through platforms like Shopify and Magento. PingPong has also introduced a payment platform for Indian exporters and MSMEs. The payment platform will help Indian exporters receive international payments into their local bank accounts at competitive rates while providing a 100% transparent pricing dashboard.

About PingPong

PingPong was founded in 2015 with the mission of helping global e-Commerce sellers keep more profits by providing competitive rates. Today, the company serves more than 750,000 online sellers worldwide, has processed more than $10 billion in cross-border payments for e-Commerce merchants to-date, and transfers more than $100 million per day for international e-Commerce sellers. Global merchants around the world trust PingPong to help them save on cross-border payments, VAT & supplier payments, and more.

For more information, please visit: in.pingpongx.com/in/index.

Ezetap launches 'Zero Contact Payments for Delivery’ in India, Ensures Safe Home Deliveries

Ezetap, India’s leading payment solutions company, has launched an array of solutions under the umbrella of Zero Contact Payments for Delivery, focussing especially on the delivery segment, which is an integral part for business continuity across different sectors such as supermarkets, e-commerce, logistics, pharmacy, restaurants, etc. The use cases such as NFC Card Payments, QR code payments, and SMS Payment Links will ensure safe and contactless deliveries for online shoppers and delivery agents as well.

To curb the spread of COVID-19, RBI and NPCI have been encouraging the adoption of digital payments. While cash payments result in close proximity, customers and delivery agents are hesitant to exchange notes, as the virus can remain on surfaces including currency notes for a few hours. Businesses of all sizes are entering the delivery segment as delivery agents and customers are both concerned about safety. This has resulted in increased awareness and a boom for contactless deliveries, as it is rapidly becoming the new norm and strategy for business expansion and continuity across different sectors.

Here are the new Zero Contact payment features by Ezetap, with enhanced customer experience, that ensures safety across multiple touch-points during a home delivery.

• NFC Card Payments: As soon as the delivery agent reaches the doorstep one can pay via NFC credit or debit card with a single tap on the PoS device.
• Dynamic QR Codes: The delivery agent uses his mobile or POS device and generates a QR code containing the order information and payment details and displays it to the customer. This allows the customer to scan the QR using any UPI app.
• Static QR Codes: In this use case, the agent carries a predesignated QR code assigned specially for him. The customer can then scan this QR code to make the payment, again maintaining a gap of 6 ft.
• SMS Pay Link: To ensure safety, many co-operative housing societies have banned the entry of delivery agents. In such a situation, a delivery agent can share an SMS Pay link to the customer, encouraging payments via UPI, credit/debit or net banking; which the customer can facilitate from the convenience of their homes. The delivery agent can track the progress of the customer’s payment journey, receive the payment, and leave the package at the main gate without worry / confidently.
• Bulk SMS: Ezetap has also introduced a bulk SMS feature which can be sent to all customers on the morning of the delivery.

Commenting on the Zero Contact Payments announcement, Byas Nambisan—CEO at Ezetap, said, “Social distancing amid COVID-19 has fuelled a surge in the use of contactless payments. Ezetap's ‘Zero Contact Payments for Delivery’ will allow customers to pay for goods or services digitally, instead of using cash. While Ezetap has been the leader in the delivery segment in India, this solution solves the problems that Covid-19 and the lockdown have created for companies that accept payment via cash on delivery. Offering multiple payment options on a single device makes the entire process smooth and low touch. Apart from simplifying omnichannel payment acceptance, it further ensures a customized payment experience based on different business needs.”

Since the inception of the company in 2011, Ezetap has been serving India’s leading players in the delivery segment and has been fundamentally changing how hundreds of millions of people pay for goods and services on a daily basis—by enabling businesses to accept any type of payment via any type of digital instrument (cards, wallets, apps) through a single interface. Ezetap platform has end-to-end capabilities to handle digital payment processing right from switching to reconciliation, using its own hardware and software.

Visa and Fintech Firm Zaggle to Jointly Create Payment Solutions for SMEs, Startups

Fintech startup Zaggle on Saturday said it has partnered with payments technology major Visa to launch innovative payment solutions for SMEs and startups. 

Under this partnership, both the companies will jointly create solutions for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups to improve productivity, efficiency and automate processes and reduce costs along with focusing on easy and faster credit through a unique card which will have forex, prepaid along with credit, Zaggle said in a statement.

Zaggle will leverage Visa's expertise in the payments space to co-create and build new solutions for SMEs and will also be able to acquire new customers and merchants and get the latter's support for newer technological innovations and ideas.

"This partnership will help us expand our services and client base who need to improve automation and digitise spends to bring in more transparency. In addition to this, our collaboration focuses on improving the working capital management of SMEs who are in dire need of a payment instrument that will help them optimize and improve cash flows for all their business expenses,” Zaggle founder Raj N Phani said. 

The platform adds over 600 SMEs every month, he said adding that with special focus on SMEs in the country which have been hardest hit due to this pandemic, it will be benefitted with a credit line, digitised spend and ability to borrow more by being able to show more digital transactions.

"SMEs remain the backbone of our economy. Now more than ever before, it has become more important for SMEs to assess how to best digitise their businesses," Arvind Ronta, Visa Head – Products, India and South Asia, said. 

One such innovation is the 'Founders Card', a credit card, which Zaggle is planning to launch founders and CEOs of SMEs and startups in the next 45-60 days.

Zaggle currently works with more than 3,000 large customers and will open this platform to a million SMEs and has recently announced free Zaggle SAVE Do-it-Yourself (DIY) AI Powered Expense Management Solution for SMEs along with other cutting-edge API Banking products. PTI SM

PayNearby wins ‘Best Fintech Innovation in Financial Inclusion’ Award

PayNearby, India’s largest hyperlocal FinTech network has won the ‘Best Fintech Innovation in Financial Inclusion’ award for offering last mile access to consumers in the underbanked sectors across the country.  PayNearby was selected based on the organization’s operational performance over the last year, innovative technology & commitment to the development of the underserved of the country. The India Finance Inclusive Awards was presented by Mr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian Chief Economic Advisor - Government of India at Access Assist event in New Delhi, to recognize the company’s dedicated work in driving innovation at the last mile and creating a financially inclusive economy.



Incepted in April 2016 by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Subhash Kumar, Yashwant Lodha, and Rajesh Jha, Nearby Technologies offers financial or non-financial services to the underbanked and unbanked segments. The company’s flagship brand, PayNearby empowers retailers at the first mile to offer digital services to local communities, thereby boosting financial inclusion in India.

PayNearby has successfully enabled the availability of essential services including financial inclusion products PAN India with the help of its ‘Digital Pradhans’ spread across the country.’ The Digital Pradhans are equipped with the tools and technology that allow them to expand their business and transient from just a retail store to much more. The company aims to create a pervasive network that will granulize, sachetize and universalize financial services and make it available to every Indian. Through their assisted tech led modules, the company offers a bouquet of services including Aadhaar banking, bank savings, domestic remittances, bill payments, card payments, granular investment and insurance among others. 

The company has close to 8 lakh retail touchpoints across 16,772 pin codes in 28 states & 9 union territories, servicing 98 million customers with a monthly transactional value of INR 40 billion and upwards.

The award was conferred by India Finance Inclusive Awards on behalf of ACCESS, a national livelihoods support organization that focuses on incubating innovations for sustainable livelihoods of the poor. PayNearby has been selected on the basis of their operational performance and unwavering commitment towards financial inclusion.  

Commenting on the win, Mr. Anand Kumar Bajaj, MD & CEO of PayNearby said, “This award is a huge recognition for us and is a true testimony to PayNearby’s unwavering dedication towards bridging the digital divide among the masses and creating an egalitarian society. With the highest levels of innovation backed by cutting edge technology and design, we have been touching the lives of millions of Indians who have otherwise been left out of the Digital India race. It is our privilege to receive this prestigious award and we thank everyone who have contributed to our journey.” 

Incepted in April 2016, Nearby Technologies is a fintech company offering financial/non-financial services to the underbanked and unbanked segment. Nearby Technologies works on a B2B2C model through its various brands – PayNearby, InsureNearby, BuyNearby and few more. PayNearby empowers retailers at the first mile to offer digital services to local communities, thereby boosting financial inclusion in India. Retailer services are focussed on Aadhaar based banking services, Domestic Remittances, Bill Payments, Card Payments, and insurance services among others. 

It was founded by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Subhash Kumar, Yashwant Lodha & Rajesh Jha who bring with them rich experience in banking, payments and financial sector. A DIPP-certified FinTech startup, has partnered with various financial institutions including YES Bank, RBL Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, CC Avenue, Bill Desk, NPCI, FASTag, NBFC and FMCG companies. It is the sole technology provider using Aadhaar Enabled Payment Services (AEPS) and IMPS to YES Bank, making them one of the only two fintech companies hosted by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI).

Razorpay Recognised as the ‘Most Innovative Payment Start-up’ at IFTA 2019

• RazorpayX, the neo-banking platform, won the ‘Most Innovative Fintech Product’


• Harshil Mathur, Co-founder and CEO honoured as the ‘Fintech Leader of the Year’

Delivering innovation that empowers businesses, Razorpay, the neo-banking platform, successfully added three more accolades to its bouquet at the India FinTech Awards (IFTA) 2019, organised by India FinTech Forum in association with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The company won awards for the ‘Most Innovative Payment Startup’ and ‘Most Innovative Fintech Product’ for its neo-banking product, RazorpayX. The CEO & Co-founder, Harshil Mathur was also honoured at the event as the ‘Fintech Leader of the Year’.

IFTA is a platform which celebrates and recognises the leaders and organizations for their contribution in the payments and technology domain. The three awards are a testimony of Razorpay’s efforts towards developing unique and scalable solutions, empowering the payment and banking infrastructure to evolve from being transactional to transformational and impactful.

[caption id="attachment_138994" align="alignleft" width="332"] Harshil Mathur, Co-founder & CEO of Razorpay[/caption]

Winning a hatrick at the event, CEO and Co-founder of Razorpay, Harshil Mathur, said, “We are truly humbled and excited about these recognitions. Razorpay has been charting an exponential growth in the last couple of years and these awards are indicative that our efforts are in the right direction, inspiring us to take excellence to new heights.”

He added, “Our strength lies in our technology and our team and this success is a sign of the faith that our partner businesses have in us. We look forward to continue creating valuable and differentiated products for businesses to solve for challenges in this swiftly evolving business landscape, so that we are all ready for tomorrow.”

Having evolved from being a single product to a multi-product company, Razorpay has achieved 500% growth in the last one year and currently powers digital payments for 8,00,000 businesses. The company also recently announced the launch of corporate credit cards, online payment support for freelancers and homepreneurs, and the acquisition of the payroll company, Opfin. The company also aims to double headcount by next year and expects a 5x growth in its revenue by the end of the next fiscal year. Razorpay has raised funding over $105 million until now, led by Tiger Global, Sequoia India, Y Combinator and Ribbit Capital, among others.

About Razorpay Software Private Limited

Razorpay, a neo-banking company, helps Indian businesses with comprehensive and innovative solutions built over robust technology to address the entire length and breadth of the payment journey for any business. Established in 2014, the company provides technology payment solutions to over 8,00,000 businesses. Founded by alumni of IIT Roorkee, Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, Razorpay is the second Indian company to be a part of Silicon Valley’s largest tech accelerator, Y Combinator. Marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, Y Combinator, Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital and MasterCard have invested a total of $106.5 million through Series A, B and C funding. Around 33 angel investors have invested in Razorpay’s mission to simplify payments. Known to be a developer oriented payment gateway, Razorpay focuses on essentials such as 24x7 support, one-line integration code and superior checkout experiences.

~ Newsvoir

BTI Payments Raises Rs. 1,500 Mn in Equity Funding from The Banktech Group and ICICI Venture's India Advantage Fund

BTI Payments Private Ltd, a joint venture between The BANKTECH Group and funds managed by ICICI Venture, today announced a fresh round of capital infusion of Rs. 1,500 Million or Rs 150 crore or ~ US$20.8 Million. This round of funding is driven by the existing promoter The Banktech Group and India Advantage Fund Series 4 managed by ICICI Venture.

BTI currently has an installed base of over 5,100 ATMs covering 15 States and the infusion of fresh equity capital will help BTI Payments drive further expansion in existing and new geographies. The company targets to double the installed base of White Label ATMs to 10,000 by March 2021.

india1 ATM – the White Label ATM brand of BTI Payments is the second largest White Label ATM network and the 3rd largest rural ATM brand in the country. With a significant rural footprint serving close to 20 million customers, india1 plays a key role in the financial inclusion agenda of Government of India by providing critical banking infrastructure for India’s rural population. Going forward, the company would continue with this mandate and expand its footprint in hitherto unpenetrated areas, thereby improving access to formal banking channels for India’s vast, underserved rural population.

K Srinivas, CEO and MD, BTI Payments Private Limited, elaborating on this landmark said, “ATM density in rural India is one of the lowest at one ATM per 20,000 people. Over the last 5 years, BTI has been building ATM infrastructure in these underserved areas to improve basic access to semi-urban and rural populace of the country. We have built a strong business over the last 5 years by successfully deploying more than 5,100 india1 ATMs serving close to 20 million customers every month. The new capital will help us deepen our rural presence and accelerate our roll-outs - doubling our ATM network over the next 18 months.”

David Glen, Chairman, BTI Payments Private Limited, said, “We are very happy with the formidable presence BTI Payments has built in the White Label ATM space in a short span of 5 years. We are very excited with the vast opportunity that rural India offers which is accentuated by the financial inclusion initiatives of government of India and are confident of BTI Payments’ ability to scale up and serve this market profitably.”

Prashant Purker, MD & CEO, ICICI Venture Funds Management Company Limited, said, “Over the past 5 years, White Label ATMs have established themselves as the most efficient and scalable model for facilitating access to formal banking channels for India’s large population in semi-urban and rural areas. BTI Payments has developed unique competencies to provide banking access to these hitherto underserved Indians with high focus on customer service. Despite various efforts, a large part of our rural population remains underserved. This offers a unique opportunity for BTI to scale its operations from 5,100 ATMs to over 10,000 ATMs over the next 18 months, potentially providing access to over 50 million customers. This we believe is only the start in a long journey to complete the financial inclusion agenda of the government.”
About BTI Payments

Established in Sydney Australia in 1991, The BANKTECH Group, parent company of BTI Payments, today we own and manage more than 18,000 payment terminals in Australia, Philippines and India and process over A$1 billion worth of transactions a month. The BANKTECH Group established a wholly owned subsidiary, BANKTECH India in 2006 (recently renamed BTI Payments). Head quartered in Bangalore, BTI Payments has emerged from a crowded market as a highly credible ATMs operator. In Feb 2014, BTI Payments got the RBI authorization to launch White Label ATMs across the country. With an experienced management and operations team, BTI Payments owns and operates 5100+ White Label ATMs under the brand india1. www.btipayments.in

About ICICI Venture Funds Management Company Limited

ICICI Venture is India’s oldest, largest and most diversified alternative assets managers with a historical AUM/AUA since inception of about USD 5 billion and currently present across 4 verticals: Private Equity, Real Estate, Special Situations (through AION in a strategic partnership with Apollo Global Management, US) and Infrastructure (through Resurgent in a strategic partnership with Tata Power Company). ICICI Venture is a wholly owned subsidiary of ICICI Bank.

~ Business Wire India

Payment Startup launches Pre-Authorization on Debit, Credit Cards for Online Merchants

Bengaluru-based payments startup, Cashfree has launched Pre-authorization on Debit and Credit cards for its 15,000 online merchants. This is the first time any payment gateway in India is offering such a service.

Pre-authorization or card authorization is a facility that payment gateways offer to online merchants to block funds when a customer places an order. If the order is modified or cancelled within a specific time, the merchant can mark the transaction void and the amount goes back to the consumer's original payment source. In this case, the merchant is not charged anything for the transaction. Without Pre-authorization, refunding a cancelled transaction would require 2-15 days of processing time from banks and card companies. Additionally, without Pre-auth, the merchant will need to pay the transaction charge (TDR) even for the cancelled transaction.

Pre-authorization of card is a popular feature in developed nations. Hotel bookings and online merchants use Pre-authorization as a way to confirm a booking. Pre-auth through Cashfree is live on travel app ixigo.com for train ticket booking. It is launching on a host of other apps as well.

Talking about the launch, Akash Sinha, CEO & Co-founder of Cashfree, said, "Pre-auth is an innovative feature for online merchants in India. This is like an escrow for transactions that have a chance of failing or where the final amount might change - say a cab ride. With Zero charges and zero refund time, it is a win-win feature for both merchant and consumer. We will see a versatile set of e-commerce companies adopting it in the near future and some interesting use cases built on top of it."

Cashfree is India's leading payment gateway. Cashfree is used by more than 15,000 businesses for vendor payouts, wage payouts, bulk refunds, expense reimbursements, loyalty, and rewards. It counts Xiaomi, Tencent, Zomato, Cred, Club Factory, ExxonMobil, Google-backed Dunzo, donation platforms like Ketto and Milaap amongst its customers. Cashfree works closely with all leading banks like ICICI, HDFC, Kotak and Yes Bank to build the core payments and banking infrastructure that powers Cashfree products. Cashfree recently raised its Series A of $5.5 million from Korean investor Smilegate with participation from existing investor Y Combinator.

China's Fintech Firm PingPong Launches its B2B Payment Services in India

PingPong which is one of the world's fastest growing cross-border B2B payment platforms and has announced its launch in the Indian market - in.pingpongx.com , providing cross-border payment services for Indian sellers. PingPong's cross-border payments business has won the praise of the first batch of Indian domestic sellers. Arshad, a successful Amazon seller and one of PingPong's clients said, “It's great working with a company that knows how to keep their customers happy and guides the process patiently. I got my first transfer free which I don't think any other company could afford.”

“India is the fastest growing economy in the world and is rapidly entering a new era of digital economy. We are very glad to be rooted in India to break down barriers in e-commerce for local cross-border sellers, minimizing expenditure costs and improving cash flow. At the same time, we can help them receive the payments safely and efficiently.” Sidharth Prasad, Head of Sales in PingPong said, “This is what PingPong is best at. In the past four years, we have built a wide network of global cooperative banks as well as a global compliance payment system; we also have obtained the business qualifications of the European Union, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and other places, serving 250,000 sellers worldwide."

At present, the fee rate of payment companies in the Indian market is maintained at more than 2%. Take a company with sales of 10 million rupees as an example, the service fee for cross-border payment that is needed to be paid is 2,00,000 rupees or even more, which has created a lot of burden for cross-border companies. PingPong simply has a 1% fee rate in India, which means that cross-border sellers who use PingPong can save at least half of the service fee during the payment process. Earlier reports said that PingPong has saved more than $1 billion in service fees for cross-border sellers around the world selling on marketplaces like Amazon, Wish, Cdiscount, Shopee and Rakuten.

PingPong also provides solutions to the problems of slow cash withdrawal and complicated fund management in multi-platform stores. Currently, PingPong can facilitate the withdrawal within one working day, which is faster than the industry average. In order to meet the global sales needs of Indian sellers, PingPong will use the strategic partnership with international mainstream e-commerce platforms to introduce Indian sellers to, such as Wish, Cdiscount, Shopee, Rakuten and Shopify to provide Indian sellers with wider sales channels. PingPong's operation interface is fast and easy to use. Only one PingPong account is required and Indian sellers can realize multi-platform and multi-store unified management, and PingPong supports mainstream currencies such as US dollar, British pound, Euro, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and Japanese yen.

The security of funds is one of the important considerations for cross-border sellers to choose a payment platform. PingPong has established a high-standard comprehensive and secure trading system to ensure the strict protection of user information and financial security including, regulatory, financial, and program compliance. PingPong has owned its exclusive core technology-PINO, the anti-cheat technology patents and has already been independently tested and evaluated by an authoritative third-party agency in the United States. In addition, PingPong has established partnerships with international first-class clearing banks and top financial institutions.

“Our mission is to help cross-border sellers improve their competitiveness globally. India is one of our key target countries. We hope to create value for them not only in the cross-border payment field but in all aspects of the e-commerce value chain," Sidharth Prasad said. PingPong will also launch Pay VAT, Bill Payment and other services in India.

PingPong is a financial technology company that aims to help global cross-border e-commerce growth with innovative business models. In March 2015, PingPong was established in the United States, and most of its team members come from outstanding companies from Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Fortune 500. At present, our business map covers more than 100 countries and regions, and we closely cooperate with local sites of many top e-commerce platforms around the world including Amazon, Wish, Cdiscount, Rakuten and Shopee, serving over 2,50,000 cross-border sellers, with a peak daily turnover of over 200 million US dollars.

PingPong is one of the most well-known and trusted brands in the international payment industry. It is listed among the top FinTech companies worldwide in the coveted CB Insights' global Fintech 250 list.

Hyperlocal Fintech Network PayNearby Crosses Daily 1 Mn Transactions Mark

Mumbai-based PayNearby, a leading hyperlocal FinTech network, has achieved the milestone of daily 1 million transactions on its platform. This achievement goes hand in hand with the company’s mission to empower kiranastore owners, termed as ‘Digital Pradhans’, while facilitating mass scalefinancial inclusion in India. Since its inception in 2016, PayNearby has empowered over 527,239 retailers pan-India, enabling them to provide banking and financial services to over 4.28 crore citizens across the country.

Through its platform, PayNearby enables local retail stores to provide basic digital financial and non-financial services such as Aadhaar ATM, SMS Payment, EMI Collection, Khata Service, Prepaid Cards and soon activating Mutual Funds, small deposits& Insurance and UPI transactions amongst others. The company’s primary aim has been to enable assisted digital financial services to the masses which are tech oblivious. The company works on sachetizing, granularising and universalising the high end technology for benefit of the low income segments along with under banked or unbanked population.

With its roadmap for pre-calibrated relevant service offerings for this segment, PayNearby has made it possible for every person to utilise digital payments and banking services with ease at a nearby retailer by harnessing the new age contextual technology in an agile manner. Since this is usually carried out at the kirana store that they frequently visit, there is the added factor of trust when making the shift to this new mode of transactions and services.

Owing to the extent and scale of its ‘HarDukaan Digital Pradhan’ initiative, the platform trains its retailers to fulfil daily transactionsfor its Aadhaar Banking, Bill Payments, Card Not Present or SMS payment, Domestic Money Remittance, EMI Collection, Financing Retailers, Gold, HyperLocal, Insurance (ABCDEFGHI) services. It has recorded Domestic Money Transfer (DMT) of INR 1,437 crores and AEPS (Aadhaar ATM) monthly transactions of INR 2,686crores, further indicating the acceptance and usage of digital services across the country.

[caption id="attachment_130877" align="alignleft" width="400"] Anand Kumar Bajaj -Founder & CEO PayNearby[/caption]

Speaking on the milestone Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder and CEO, PayNearby said,“We are delighted to have crossed the mark of 1 million transactions. This is a proud moment for us at PayNearby. It has been our aim to empower local retailers across the country, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, to leverage technology for a smoother and simpler renditionof banking and financial services to the tech oblivious segment.

Over the course of its existence, PayNearby has been addressing the need-gap towards financial inclusion in the country through its array of financial services and extensively expanding network. We are confident that we are heading in the right direction in order to fulfil our goal of growing this network to include 50-lakh retail partners to digitally and financially empower the common man."

Incepted in April 2016 by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Subhash Kumar, Yashwant Lodha & Rajesh Jha, PayNearby is a robust digital fintech company which offers digital financial/non-financial services to locals. It is registered under the Startup India initiative of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Government of India. PayNearby works on a B2B2C model and facilitates a bouquet of financial services including aadhaar banking, domestic remittances, bill payments, card payments, granular investment and insurance assurance among others.

Since its inception, PayNearby has been significantly contributing towards the ‘Digital India’ movement by simplifying access to digital financial services for the masses via its network of ‘Digital Pradhans’. Crossing 1 million transactions marks another significant step towards the company’s goal of creating the world’s largest hyperlocal FinTech network in India.

The startup has numerous technological tie-ups with financial institutions including YES Bank, RBL Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, CC Avenue, Bill Desk, NPCI, FASTag, NBFC and FMCG companies. It is also the sole technology provider for using Aadhaar Enabled Payment Services (AEPS) and IMPS to YES Bank, making them one of the only two fintech companies hosted by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI).

Payment Startup BharatPe Raises $15.5 Mn from Insight Partners, Sequoia and Beenext

Delhi-based Resilient Innovations Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates payment tech startup BharatPe, has raised $15.5 million (about Rs 106.7 crore) in series A round of funding from Insight Partners, an American venture capital and private equity firm, along with contribution from existing investors, Sequoia and Singapore-based VC firm, Beenext.

The fund raised will be utilized by BharatPe in scaling its operations and empowering millions of merchants with UPI payment within the next two years.

The funding came within a couple of months after BharatPe had raised nearly $17 million (about Rs 120 crore) from Sequoia Capital India, valuing the payments startup at $60-65 million. Prior to that in October last year, it raised $2 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital India and Beenext.

With latest fund infusion, BharatPe has raised a total of $33 million in funding over three rounds, according to www.indianweb2.com estimates.

Founded in 2018 by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani, is a B2B payments company enabling universal 'UPI'​ acceptance at offline merchants. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an immediate real-time payment system that helps in instantly transferring the funds between the two bank accounts through a mobile platform.

Currently with over 6 lakh merchants in India, the startup is operating in 11 cities - Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Chandigarh and Jaipur.

To recall, last month leading payments startup MSwipe Technologies has raised Rs 219.8 crore from US-based hedge fund Falcon Edge, B Capital Asia, Epiq Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. At the same time it was also reported that another leading Indian online payments startup Razorpay is in advanced discussions with Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Sequoia Capital to raise $75-100 million in new funding,

True Balance offering UPI Service as a New Payment method to Users in Collab with PayU India

Taking India one step closer to become a cashless economy, TrueBalance, Softbank-backed balance and data management mobile app has tied up with PayU to connect customers and merchants by enabling seamless payments through a digital platform. 

TrueBalanceis on the verge of expanding its business by way of providing e-commerce platform enabling customers to have the benefits of EMI on payment, insurance, and purchase of products.

UPI
launched in India in 2016, allows bank-account holders to transact
using their smartphones by just feeding in their Aadhaar numbers or
mobile phone numbers instead of entering bank account details. PayU is a
Netherlands-based fintech company providing a safe payment technology
to online merchants. This True Balance-PayU tie-up strengthens the Digital India initiative through TrueBalance’s vision of targeting the untapped one billion mobile phone users without access to digital financial services.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Charlie Lee, CEO, True Balance said, “Foreseeing the announcement of the launch of 1 lakh Digital Village in India during the budget, UPI will play a key role in empowering the next Billion. We have recently launched our KYC compliance for customers, and I am extremely delighted to introduce our new fintech service in India in collaboration with PayU India.”

All True Balance app
users will be able to make safe and seamless payments of all the
existing products and utility bill payments using the UPI platform.

Further elaborating on the partnership with True Balance, Rahul Kothari, Chief Business Officer, Enterprise Business, PayU India, said,
“UPI clocked whooping 672 million transactions till last month. This
clearly indicates that UPI has changed the way people look at money. We
can see the paradigm shift in consumer behavior, moving towards digital
payment alternatives than cash-based transactions. Our partnership with True Balance will also open new opportunities for people in tier 2/3 regions and help them quickly stride on the UPI wave,”

In 2014, the mobile application True balance was launched in Korea by Mr. Cheolwon Lee (Charlie Lee), an alumnus of the University of Chicago. In 2016, True Balance was founded in India to empower the next billion and to enable seamless mobile bill recharges; which has garnered more than 70 million downloads so far. True balance is ‘One Stop Payment “solution for all utility bill payments and foresees to provide small loans for these services to its users.

In March 2016, True Balance raised an undisclosed amount from SoftBank Ventures Korea .

True Balance is aiming to serve India 2 and 3 with utility payment and providing financial platform for all. True Balance is
aligned with the mission of digital India and focus on providing the
rural population an experience for easy and safe utility bill management
and payments through use of mobile technology.

QR Code-based Payment App BharatPe to Raise $17 Mn from Sequoia India

In one of the largest Series A round of funding in Indian Startup Ecosystem, Bangalore-based BharatPe is in the final stages of raising nearly $17 million (about Rs 120 crore) from investors led by Sequoia Capital India, valuing
the payments startup at $60-65 million, reported Economic Times.

Founded in April 2018, by former CFO of Grofers, Ashneer Grover (IIT Delhi 2004), and Shashvat Nakrani, BhratPe is a QR code-based payment app building the largest offline merchant network in India by making mobile payments acceptance free and ubiquitous.

BharatPe empower the merchants to accept UPI payments for ‘FREE’ through the BharatPe QR. Merchants can sign up instantly and start receiving the funds immediately in their bank account. BharatPe makes payment acceptance simple by offering merchants a single interface for all UPI apps such as PayTM, PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM, Mobikwik, Freecharge, True Caller and 100 other UPI apps. 

"BharatPe is a fin-tech company and not a re-seller. We are not an aggregator or payment gateway in the traditional sense. BharatPe works closely with our partner banks to develop custom APIs to enable an extremely simple product for the merchants. Our QR technology and deep integration at the bank end is our secret sauce," says the company website.

In February last year, ICICI Bank acquired a minority stake in payment startup, Tapits Technologies, a Mumbai-based early stage startup that helps merchants accept digital payments through Aadhaar biometrics.

In May last year, another new payment startup, ToneTag, had raised $8-10 million from a clutch of marquee, strategic investors led by Amazon Inc. and Mastercard,. ToneTag uses encrypted sound waves to make offline, proximity-based contact-less payments on any device.

In June, Chennai-based Hip Bar raised Rs 27 crore from alcoholic beverages company, United Spirits Ltd (USL). Hip Bar claims to be India's first drinks delivery app with an RBI-approved mobile wallet that enables customers browse adult beverages, order them and have them home-delivered.