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

Google To Take On PayTM; Launches 'Tez' Mobile Payment App in India

A while back, we reported how there were many speculations going round the tech world about how search giant Google was contemplating on launching its very own UPI based digital payment service for the Indian market. And now, the speculations have come true as yesterday Google finally unveiled Tez, its free mobile wallet for India.

Whether it is sending money home to your family or splitting money among friends for a dinner party, Tez will let you do it all in a jiffy. Using the app, users can pay for goods securely in physical stores and online. The app links users phone directly to their bank accounts. What makes Tez standout from its competitors is the Audio QR feature, which lets users use ultrasonic sounds to exchange money, bypassing any need for NFC.

Tez can be considered Google's effort towards replacing cash transactions in India and becoming a more integral part of how people pay for utilities, using their smartphones. The search giant has collaborated with several major banks in the country by taking the way of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) — a single window mobile payment system launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) with backing from the Indian government.

During the launch, Google also revealed that phones coming to the market from Lava, Micromax, Nokia and Panasonic will soon come with Tez preloaded.

Speaking to TechCrunch, a spokesperson shared that Google has confirmed to him that payments made and taken using UPI will be free for both consumers and small merchants. It is currently unclear on how Google is considering on keeping this going as tech giant brings on the functionality to upload cards to the Tez wallet. For the uninitiated, card usage comes with a transaction fee.

While Google's Tez might pose the maximum threat to India's homegrown numero uno payments app PayTM the two apps are quite different from one another. Tez like PayTM isn't a mobile wallet, where money is stored in the app and needs to be topped up in order to be used; it’s more on the lines of how Apple’s Wallet functions as it also links users phone directly with their bank accounts to let them use their phone as a way to deduct payments from those accounts.

Google's AQR is its own proprietary technology. This is the first time the tech giant has used the technology for payments, although it has used ultrasonic sound for transferring information between devices before. Lisnr and Chirp are some of other startups that have used audio-based “codes” to transfer payments and other data before Google's Tez.

While Tez is currently being launched only in India, Google has also trademarked the service's name in other Asian countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. This means, there might be a possibility of expanding the service to other regions.

Tez is being launched on both, iOS and Android.

Google To Take On PayTM; Launches 'Tez' Mobile Payment App in India

A while back, we reported how there were many speculations going round the tech world about how search giant Google was contemplating on launching its very own UPI based digital payment service for the Indian market. And now, the speculations have come true as yesterday Google finally unveiled Tez, its free mobile wallet for India.

Whether it is sending money home to your family or splitting money among friends for a dinner party, Tez will let you do it all in a jiffy. Using the app, users can pay for goods securely in physical stores and online. The app links users phone directly to their bank accounts. What makes Tez standout from its competitors is the Audio QR feature, which lets users use ultrasonic sounds to exchange money, bypassing any need for NFC.

Tez can be considered Google's effort towards replacing cash transactions in India and becoming a more integral part of how people pay for utilities, using their smartphones. The search giant has collaborated with several major banks in the country by taking the way of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) — a single window mobile payment system launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) with backing from the Indian government.

During the launch, Google also revealed that phones coming to the market from Lava, Micromax, Nokia and Panasonic will soon come with Tez preloaded.

Speaking to TechCrunch, a spokesperson shared that Google has confirmed to him that payments made and taken using UPI will be free for both consumers and small merchants. It is currently unclear on how Google is considering on keeping this going as tech giant brings on the functionality to upload cards to the Tez wallet. For the uninitiated, card usage comes with a transaction fee.

While Google's Tez might pose the maximum threat to India's homegrown numero uno payments app PayTM the two apps are quite different from one another. Tez like PayTM isn't a mobile wallet, where money is stored in the app and needs to be topped up in order to be used; it’s more on the lines of how Apple’s Wallet functions as it also links users phone directly with their bank accounts to let them use their phone as a way to deduct payments from those accounts.

Google's AQR is its own proprietary technology. This is the first time the tech giant has used the technology for payments, although it has used ultrasonic sound for transferring information between devices before. Lisnr and Chirp are some of other startups that have used audio-based “codes” to transfer payments and other data before Google's Tez.

While Tez is currently being launched only in India, Google has also trademarked the service's name in other Asian countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. This means, there might be a possibility of expanding the service to other regions.

Tez is being launched on both, iOS and Android.

Samsung Pay is Now Officially Available in India; Supports PayTM

Early this year, Samsung teased the launch of its mobile payment service 'Samsung Pay' in India. Now today, the South Korean giant has officially launched the service for India's Samsung device users. It has rolled out with support for banks -- Axis, HDFC, ICICI, SBI, and Standard Chartered, and credit and debit cards from MasterCard and Visa.

Samsung will adding support for more banks including Citibank and American Express in the coming weeks. Interestingly, users in India can also add their Paytm wallet accounts in the Samsung Pay app. Notably, PayTM is India’s largest fintech startup and mobile wallet with 200 million registered users.

Samsung Pay uses both NFC and MST (magnetic secure transmission) to make wireless payments. All you need to tab the phone to the payment terminal, touch the fingerprint scanner for authentication, and you’re done. There is a support for NFC, but we’re not aware how many places in India will have support for NFC-based payment solutions.

The biggest limitation of Samsung Pay however is the list of the devices that will support Samsung Pay service. As the service is currently available only on -- Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A7 (2016) and Galaxy A5 (2016). Both the Galaxy A7 (2017) and Galaxy A5 (2017).

This payment service launch by Samsung is indeed a step beyond Apple, which has not yet released its Apple Pay service in India. Speaking on a visit to India last year, CEO Tim Cook said the iPhone maker intends to bring Apple Pay to India but it seems that India is not on priority for Apple as of now as the company is more keen for other Asian countries as Apple Pay has already been rolled out in Hong Kong, France, Singapore and Japan among others.

Samsung is the first company to launch a mobile payment service in India, and by doing this Samsung Pay service has reached total of 13 countries, including China, the U.S. and Korea.

Other than Apple and Samsung, Google is yet another player that offers a mobile payment platform in the form of Android Pay.

MobiKwik Partners with 12 Eelectricity Boards in 8 States

Mobikwik, the largest digital payment company in India, today announced its tie ups with 12 state electricity boards. The move comes as a part of MobiKwik’s expansion plan to set up a national base for utility payments. The state electricity boards that have been tied up with are Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tripura, Meghalaya, Calcutta, Rajasthan and union territories of Daman and Diu.

Customers in these states will now be able to pay their electricity bills using Mobikwik website or app. The company already provides bill payment services for prominent power discoms such as Reliance Energy, BSES Rajdhani, BSES Yamuna, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd. and Chhattisgarh Electricity Board.

Speaking on the tie-up, Mrinal Sinha, COO, MobiKwik, said, “With these tie-ups, Mobikwik now provides electricity bill payment services for 25 power discoms in India. This development is in line with our vision to make digital payments ubiquitous.”

The electricity boards that have been partnered with include Bhagalpur Electricity Private Limited, India Power Corporation Limited, DNHPD, Rajasthan Vidyut Vitran Nigam, Tripura State Electricity Board, Madhya Pradesh Madhya Kshetra, Madhya Pradesh Paschim Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran, Madhya Pradesh Poorv Kshetra Jabalpur, Daman and Diu Electricity, Calcutta Electricity Supply, Meghalaya Electricity and Odisha Discom.

MobiKwik has a network of 32 million users and 100000 merchants across the country. A pioneer in India’s digital payments industry, MobiKwik also enables cash loading on its wallet with 100000 touch points across 1000 locations.

MobiKwik is already powering payments for IRCTC, Uber, Meru Cabs, Big Bazaar, OYO Rooms, Zomato, PVR, Archies, WHSmith India, BookMyShow, Grofers, Big Basket, Dominos, Burger King, Pizza Hut, eBay, ShopClues, Myntra, Jabong, Pepperfry, Barista, Food Panda, Nearbuy, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Louis Phillips, GoDaddy, MakeMyTrip.

Mobikwik closest competitor and probably much well-funded than Mobikwik is said to be picking more funding of approx. $300M from Goldman Sachs, Temasek and Mediatek.

Mobile Based Fintech Startup Eko Launches API for Innovative Payment and Financial Services

Eko, a leading mobile-based fintech company, today launched Domestic Money Remittance Service through API integration in partnership with 10 plus companies in mobile recharge, travel & ticketing domain. Some of the partner companies include UFX, The Services Online and Yahya Technologies. With this, the partner companies will plug in Eko’s API to leverage the platform for direct connectivity with NPCI, UIDAI, banks and aggregators. During a three-month beta testing phase, Eko has helped its partners process over Rs. 100 crore of remittances over these APIs.

Eko has released APIs for its domestic money transfer business which allows companies who have similar business models to plug in these APIs and extend the same to their channel partners. The APIs also allow development of innovative payment & financial services such as digital wallets, P2P transfers and in store & online payments.

Mr. Abhishek Sinha, Co-founder & CEO, Eko Financial Services said, "We would like the developer community to leverage Eko’s PPI license & framework of payment APIs and build their own innovative use-cases/products. This is really to further push the agenda of ‘Make in India’ and also contributing towards ‘India Stack’ which is trying to bridge the digital divide in our country."

Mr. Rahul Jain, Product Manager, Eko India Financial Services said, “This is yet another milestone for Eko in domestic money remittance service. Eko is emerging as the most preferred and convenient choice for domestic money remittance service. Our user experience is far superior to existing options and brings in more flexibility, trust and transparency over product & pricing. The API will further enhance UI/UX, making it win-win situation for both Eko and its partners. Together, we look forward to providing higher value to our customers."

Mr. Usman Faheed, Managing Director, UFX said, “As we at UFX believe in “Customers is First & always right” so our understanding on business growth is to fulfil their demands without delay. With Eko as our technology partner, we are sure that we will grow in multi-folds by providing innovative products, superior quality and trust to our channel. Both EKO and UFX are in similar lines in terms of our vision and mission which is the key to our partnership."

Mr. Harsh H Thacker, Managing Director, The Services Online said "Delivering innovative services and quality products in market with safety and confidentiality of transactions was the prime motto of the company which got boosted by joining hands with EKO which not only helped us to make business environment smoother but also allows flexibility for connecting services to our platform smoothly."

Eko is rapidly expanding its network and currently has more than 5000 agents across 13 states and 80 cities.

Founded in 2007, Gurugram (Gurgaon) headquartered Eko is India’s leading fintech company, which provides mobile money through its unique 2-factor authentication (2FA) technology. It is the only company globally that empowers customers to do secure financial transactions on their mobile phones, including basic feature phones, without installing any software on the phone or the SIM card. Eko’s platform has securely processed over $3 Million worth of transactions serving over 10 million customers, most of which are low / moderate income customers. In 2010, it was chosen amongst the 'NASSCOM EMERGE 50 – The League of Ten for 2010' list by NASSCOM, the Indian chamber of commerce, for "50 Emerging companies which are redefining the benchmark of excellence for the next generation of SMEs."

'Ruplee' Make It Easy To Dine At Restaurant Cashless And Pay With Your Mobile

Eating outside is fun but waiting for the bill to arrive later is a punishment. I’m sure thousands of us have had this dreadful experience of waiting for a long time after a meal and looking expectedly towards the waiter to arrive with the bill. Many of us might even have had a feeling of fleeing without paying the bill. Natasha Jain once had a similar experience in San Francisco, where she had to wait for a painful 20 minutes to get her bill. This experience of hers set her thinking and after a lot of thinking, she came up with Ruplee.

The Ruplee application has been conceived to make payments easier using smart devices. The app makes it super simple to make payments at a restaurant and also maintains a record of all the payments. The app is very user-friendly. The user just has to check-in with the app whenever he/she goes to a restaurant. This check-in notifies the merchant. After the user has enjoyed his meal, all he has to do is ask for the bill and pay using his credit or debit card.



The Ruplee app also helps you in keeping a check on your finances by maintaining a record of all your past payments. Splitting the bill when out with the friends is an added advantage of this app. On the top of it, you are also provided with discounts upto 25% on your next visit’s bill at certain drinking and eating establishments, once you have installed the app.

The app is free to download for Android and iOS devices.

The app has not only come as a boon for the customers but it is also of great help to the merchants. It provides them with ease, flexibility and lack of usual surcharges on card payments. Restaurant owners can even export the transactions between two dates in the form of excel sheets from the website and then use it for analyzing the customer’s preferences and run analytics.

Natasha Jain, a self-raised entrepreneur, is the woman behind this wonderful application. She has a Masters degree in Management Science from Stanford University. Before setting up Ruplee, she has even managed the much successful FreshMentors initiative that she founded in 2012. FreshMentors acts as an online college mentoring platform. Ruplee is headquartered with office in Gurgaon.

The app has been built by payment and security experts and is very safe to use. All your credit/debit card data is safely stored and encrypted. The payments are only authorized once the user has entered his CVV and 3D secure pin.

The eight-member development team behind Ruplee based out of Gurgaon have done a spectacular job of keeping as much data as possible on the device, which eliminates the need for a very fast internet connection, required in order to provide the 3D secure pin made mandatory by the RBI.

'Ruplee' Make It Easy To Dine At Restaurant Cashless And Pay With Your Mobile

Eating outside is fun but waiting for the bill to arrive later is a punishment. I’m sure thousands of us have had this dreadful experience of waiting for a long time after a meal and looking expectedly towards the waiter to arrive with the bill. Many of us might even have had a feeling of fleeing without paying the bill. Natasha Jain once had a similar experience in San Francisco, where she had to wait for a painful 20 minutes to get her bill. This experience of hers set her thinking and after a lot of thinking, she came up with Ruplee.

The Ruplee application has been conceived to make payments easier using smart devices. The app makes it super simple to make payments at a restaurant and also maintains a record of all the payments. The app is very user-friendly. The user just has to check-in with the app whenever he/she goes to a restaurant. This check-in notifies the merchant. After the user has enjoyed his meal, all he has to do is ask for the bill and pay using his credit or debit card.



The Ruplee app also helps you in keeping a check on your finances by maintaining a record of all your past payments. Splitting the bill when out with the friends is an added advantage of this app. On the top of it, you are also provided with discounts upto 25% on your next visit’s bill at certain drinking and eating establishments, once you have installed the app.

The app is free to download for Android and iOS devices.

The app has not only come as a boon for the customers but it is also of great help to the merchants. It provides them with ease, flexibility and lack of usual surcharges on card payments. Restaurant owners can even export the transactions between two dates in the form of excel sheets from the website and then use it for analyzing the customer’s preferences and run analytics.

Natasha Jain, a self-raised entrepreneur, is the woman behind this wonderful application. She has a Masters degree in Management Science from Stanford University. Before setting up Ruplee, she has even managed the much successful FreshMentors initiative that she founded in 2012. FreshMentors acts as an online college mentoring platform. Ruplee is headquartered with office in Gurgaon.

The app has been built by payment and security experts and is very safe to use. All your credit/debit card data is safely stored and encrypted. The payments are only authorized once the user has entered his CVV and 3D secure pin.

The eight-member development team behind Ruplee based out of Gurgaon have done a spectacular job of keeping as much data as possible on the device, which eliminates the need for a very fast internet connection, required in order to provide the 3D secure pin made mandatory by the RBI.

New Payment Solution allow merchants to turn their smart phone into mobile point of sale (POS)

First Data, which is an electronic payment solutions provider, launched a mobile payment solution (mPOS) for merchants on Thursday, 17^th July.

Through this solution, the merchants will be easily able to turn their Smartphones or tablets into a mobile point of sale (POS) device by using a compact pin enabled card reader device and a user engaging mobile app. First Data will be bringing this service soon to metros like Chandigarh, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad.

According to Nitish Asthana, general manager, First Data, using this solution the merchants will be able to accept card payments from their customers anywhere such as at their offices or homes.

He further also added that merchants nowadays are constantly looking for reliable and simple solutions to grow their businesses with their customers. mPOS solution provides just that to merchants. It is a cost effective solution for converting on the go cash payments to electronic and for small merchants to start accepting payments through cards.

The card reader has an LCD display and can be easily connected to Smartphones via Bluetooth. The card also has a pin pad for pin entry.

The card reader will be able to accept variety of card payments which include all kinds of chip and magnetic strips cards. It is also fully compliant with EMV, PCI and RBI standards.

The company initially plans to target small retailers, enterprise merchants and large retailers.

The company hopes that by catering to multiple avenues such as retailer, home delivery, radio taxis, small kirana shops, e-tailers, ticketing, theaters,  hotels and restaurants, its product will be able to capture a large share of mPOS market in India.

According to the data available, there are about 418 million credit, debit cards users as on April 2014 and as against this there are only one million POS terminals.

The mPOS solution will make the merchants available with all the services through one single window rather than having them to communicate with multiple providers.

 

New Payment Solution allow merchants to turn their smart phone into mobile point of sale (POS)

First Data, which is an electronic payment solutions provider, launched a mobile payment solution (mPOS) for merchants on Thursday, 17^th July.

Through this solution, the merchants will be easily able to turn their Smartphones or tablets into a mobile point of sale (POS) device by using a compact pin enabled card reader device and a user engaging mobile app. First Data will be bringing this service soon to metros like Chandigarh, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad.

According to Nitish Asthana, general manager, First Data, using this solution the merchants will be able to accept card payments from their customers anywhere such as at their offices or homes.

He further also added that merchants nowadays are constantly looking for reliable and simple solutions to grow their businesses with their customers. mPOS solution provides just that to merchants. It is a cost effective solution for converting on the go cash payments to electronic and for small merchants to start accepting payments through cards.

The card reader has an LCD display and can be easily connected to Smartphones via Bluetooth. The card also has a pin pad for pin entry.

The card reader will be able to accept variety of card payments which include all kinds of chip and magnetic strips cards. It is also fully compliant with EMV, PCI and RBI standards.

The company initially plans to target small retailers, enterprise merchants and large retailers.

The company hopes that by catering to multiple avenues such as retailer, home delivery, radio taxis, small kirana shops, e-tailers, ticketing, theaters,  hotels and restaurants, its product will be able to capture a large share of mPOS market in India.

According to the data available, there are about 418 million credit, debit cards users as on April 2014 and as against this there are only one million POS terminals.

The mPOS solution will make the merchants available with all the services through one single window rather than having them to communicate with multiple providers.