WhatsApp wins approval to double payments offering to 40 million users in India

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WhatsApp has won regulatory approval to double the number of users on its payments service in India to 40 million, a source with direct knowledge told Reuters on Friday.

The company had requested that there should be no cap on users of its payment service in India.

Instead, the National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI)this week told the company it could double the user base to which it can offer its payment service – currently restricted to 20 million.

WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta.

The source said the new cap would still hinder the company’s growth prospects given that WhatsApp’s messenger service has more than 500 million users in India, the company’s biggest market.

It was not clear when the new cap would come into effect.

WhatsApp did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the NPCI declined to comment.

WhatsApp competes with Alphabet Inc’s Google Pay,SoftBank- and Ant Group-backed Paytm and Walmart’sPhonePe in India’s crowded digital market.

The NPCI gave WhatsApp approval to start its payments service last year after the company spent years trying to comply with Indian regulations, including data storage norms that require all payments-related data to be stored locally.

WhatsApp has almost reached its user base of 20 million for payment services, said the source, who declined to be identified as the details are private.

Online transactions, lending and e-wallet services have been growing rapidly in India, led by a government push to make the country’s cash-loving merchants and consumers adopt digital payments

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IndusInd Bank launches mobile app for merchants

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Private sector IndusInd Bank has launched a comprehensive mobile application (app) to enable merchants, retailers and professionals to carry out banking transactions digitally, on a single platform.

“Indus Merchant Solutions will enable merchants and retailers to undertake an array of activities such as accept instant cashless payments on mobile phones from customers through multiple digital modes, track inventory via in-built dashboards, apply for an exclusive Point of Sale (PoS) machine to facilitate card based payments, as well as avail small ticket business loans from the bank in a completely digital and paperless manner, without having to visit a bank branch,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Any current account holder of IndusInd Bank can download the ‘Indus Merchant Solutions’ app and start using it. A non-customer can open a current account with the bank through a fully digitised process, and get themselves registered as a merchant, it further said.

The app is currently available on smartphones with Android operating systems and will shortly be available for smartphones using the iOS operating system as well.

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RBI, Monetary Authority of Singapore announce project to link UPI and PayNow

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In a boost to the Unified Payments Interface, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have announced a project to link their respective fast payment systems — UPI and PayNow.

“The linkage is targeted for operationalisation by July 2022,” the RBI said on Tuesday.

The UPI-PayNow linkage will enable users of each of the two fast payment systems to make instant, low-cost fund transfers on a reciprocal basis without a need to get onboarded onto the other payment system, it further said.

UPI registers robust growth in August

PayNow is the fast payment system of Singapore which enables peer-to-peer funds transfer service, available to retail customers through participating banks and non-bank financial institutions (NFIs) in Singapore. It enables users to send and receive instant funds from one bank or e-wallet account to another in Singapore by using just their mobile number, Singapore NRIC/FIN, or VPA.

The technology-led payments revolution

The linkage builds upon the earlier efforts of NPCI International Private Limited and Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) to foster cross-border interoperability of payments using cards and QR codes, between India and Singapore and will further anchor trade, travel and remittance flows between the two countries.

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Amazon Pay also set to help users book deposits, even as GPay service under RBI watch

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Amazon Pay India, the American e-commerce major’s payments app, is also set to offer deposit booking services for its customers, even as rival Google Pay’s similar facility has invited regulatory attention within days of its launch.

Amazon Pay India on Wednesday announced a tie-up with investment platform Kuvera.in through which the former’s customers will be able to invest in mutual funds and fixed deposits, a statement said.

“Kuvera will provide its services, products and technology know-how to create an exclusive experience for Amazon Pay’s users to facilitate investments into mutual funds, fixed deposits, and more over time,” it said.

Google Pay has tied up with Equitas Small Finance Bank for allowing its users to book deposits. Details surrounding the banks where Amazon Pay customers’ deposits will be made were not immediately known.

Following Google Pay’s announcement, there have been reports that the deal between the big tech company and the bank is under RBI’s watch for its implication on the broader financial landscape.

RBI’s stance

In the past, the RBI has made it clear that it is wary of ‘Big Tech’ firms like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, and flagged it as among the risk factors for financial stability in the half-yearly Financial Stability Report released in July.

“At Amazon Pay, our vision is to simplify lives and fulfil aspirations by solving payment and financial needs of every Indian. For our most engaged customers, growing their wealth and investments is a large need, here is where, we think Kuvera can help our customers with their unique offering,” Amazon Pay India’s director Vikas Bansal was quoted as saying in the statement.

The statement said only 30-40 million of the 600 million internet users in India have access to quality investment products.

“Through this arrangement with Amazon Pay India, we seek to add value to the investors’ journey. Our goal is to accelerate the democratisation of investing and wealth management in India,” Kuvera’s founder and chief executive Gaurav Rastogi said.

Kuvera has more than 10 lakh users and ₹28,000 crore in assets under advice since starting in 2017.

Alokik Advani, the managing partner of Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, an early investor in Kuvera, said the tie-up will bring “best in class saving and investing products to a much wider base of users across the country.”

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SucSEED Angel, IIIT-H fund exit Paymatrix

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SucSEED Angel Network and IIIT-Hyderabad’s seed fund have exited from Paymatrix, a fintech start-up established in 2016.

The two entities were offered an exit by the founders and Muthoot group that invested into the start-up.

The financial consideration for the two exits have not been revealed by the start-up.

The start-up lets users pay their rents, rental deposits and maintenance payments online using credit cards, giving them a window of credit-free period of 45-50 days.

The start-up, with a base of 82,000 users, processed ₹200 crore payment requests so far.

“Paymatrix was one of our very promising early-stage investments at IIIT-H Foundation. We believe that this partnership and investment from Muthoot group shall enable them to scale greater heights,” Ramesh Loganathan, COO at IIIT-H Foundation, said in a statement.

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Yono by SBI Joins Hands with Shivrai Technologies, to Launch Small Farm Accounting App, Farmizo Khata, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Business Wire India

Farmizo Khata assisting Farmers of the Future

Shivrai Technologies, Indian AgTech company, recently announced the launch of their B2C Farm accounting mobile application, Farmizo Khata. Joining hands with Yono by SBI, they aim to help farmers across the country to manage their accounts efficiently, thus cutting down on losses. Shivrai also owns their own B2B brand, FarmERP.

Shivrai Technologies recently coined their 25-year mark of incorporation. Known for their formidable solutions in the space of AgriTech, they are all set to dip their foot into the B2C pool. Through this new venture with Yono by SBI, they aim to make their application increasingly accessible.

Farmers incur massive losses due to the lack of knowledge, disorganised book-keeping skills, and inability to manage their expenses in the most profitable manner. To aid this process, Shivrai Technologies partnered with leading digital banking platform, Yono SBI to help smallholder, marginal, and large-holder farmers by way of a free application. This will allow them to focus on their costs incurred, as well as the bookkeeping of total profits that are in line.

This free-of-cost application will not only efficiently manage their accounts but will also give them a platform to analyse and calculate their profits, losses, and expenses, thus enabling them to make wiser purchase, harvest, and production decisions. It is curated in the simplest possible way for smallholder farmers to benefit from it.

Aapki Kheti Ka Hisaab Kitaab- Available on Google Playstore and Appstore, as well as in the form of a digital portal, this accounting software has a simple User Interface and Experience for its audience. Shivrai is offering this software to farmers all across the nation at no cost.

How Does It Work?

Users can create their profile by entering basic information. Post that, the software will guide them to register their plot by entering Plot details and Crop Information. This software will also assist the farmers in Geo-Tagging their crops. In the next step, the farmers would be required to add their expenses incurred on each plot, along with their income details and profit and loss amounts on the software’s dashboard. After doing this, the software would automatically generate the Exact Cost of Production of each crop as per kg and acre. This would include the Auditor cost, the marketing and housekeeping cost, etc. In the end, the software would create a ‘Khata’ with a complete view of all the transactions in a simple ledger.

Sanjay Borkar, CEO and Co-Founder of Shivrai Technologies commented on the launch of the software, “We are very excited to announce the launch of this application. Inconsistent cost sheets, poor calculations of expenses and income, faulty accounts are a pain for farmers, resulting in massive financial setbacks. Farmizo Khata has entered the market with the sole purpose of reducing these financial setbacks for smallholder farmers, in turn increasing their yearly turnovers.,

Under the umbrella of Farmizo, Shivrai also plans on launching applications catering to various sub-verticals within the agricultural industry. In the year 2021, the brand is focusing on the upliftment of smallholder farmers by way of launching various applications personalised for their use. In the coming months, Shivrai is gearing itself to launch its new D2C application. The app that is in the final stages of testing, would be directly selling fresh fruits and vegetables to end-consumers, bypassing all and any third-party retailers or middlemen. In the next two years, the brand has a target to onboard 2 million agricultural stakeholders on their platforms.

Santosh Shinde, COO, and Co-Founder of Shivrai Technologies stated, “We believe Farmizo Khata will pave a way for smallholder farmers giving them the right support they need to make wise financial decisions. This being the 25th year of the inception of our parent company, Shivrai Technologies, we have some exciting projects in the pipeline. Farmizo is one such project that we can’t wait to share with the market.,

Shivrai Technologies is best known for their B2B Farm Business Management Platform, FarmERP. The platform has its presence in over 25 countries today, catering to stakeholders across the entire agricultural value chain. Their comprehensive platform acts as a solution for various agribusinesses and aims to vastly grow in the future with their personalised solutions.



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MobiKwik denies data breach of 3.5 million users amid IPO plans, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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NEW DELHI: Digital wallet and payments company MobiKwik, reportedly planning an initial public offering (IPO) around September this year to raise $200-250 million, on Monday denied claims that sensitive data of millions of its users has been leaked.

Independent cyber security researchers have claimed that a database containing KYC details of nearly 3.5 million users of MobiKwik is up for sale on the Dark Web.

First tweeted by independent cyber security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia and then by French researcher Elliot Alderson on Monday, the alleged breach includes 8.2TB data containing users’ phone numbers, emails, hashed passwords, addresses, bank accounts and card details.

MobiKwik, however, vehemently denied any such breach. “Some media-crazed so-called security researchers have repeatedly attempted to present concocted files wasting precious time of our organisation as well as members of the media,” the company said in a statement shared with IANS.

“We thoroughly investigated and did not find any security lapses. Our user and company data is completely safe and secure,” the company added.

Alderson had tweeted: “Probably the largest KYC data leak in history.” Rajaharia had claimed earlier that “11 crore Indian cardholder’s cards’ data including personal details and KYC soft copy (PAN, Aadhaar etc) allegedly leaked from the company’s server in India”.

According to the researchers, the entire database is available for 1.5 Bitcoin (nearly $84,000) on the Dark Web.

The reports surfaced as MobiKwik last week raised $7.2 million in a funding round prior to the listing on the stock exchange, according to regulatory filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

According to Entrackr, Mobikwik’s post-money valuation currently stands at $493 million with the latest funding round.



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