Setting up a payment gateway can be too much of a hassle, as it requires you to shell out upfront anywhere between Rs.6,000 and Rs.30,000 as initial cost besides paying periodic annual maintenance fees.
A prerequisite is that you need to have a website up and running for facilitating customer payments. Lastly, processes relating to installation and testing take at least a month before the gateway gets operational.
Unaffordable
Precisely why, it is considered unaffordable and cumbersome by small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).
“This can be discerned from the fact that of the 30 million SMEs in the country, just about 10,000 accept online payment from customers,” said Kannan Nambiar, co-founder of Payd Software Solutions, a fledgling start-up based in Kasaragod and gearing up to shift base to Bangalore. Payd has come up with a quick, easy and cost-effective payment gateway solution for small and medium businesses.
Though not physically present at the Startup Village in Kalamassery, it is one of the firms incubated there.
‘Instant solution’
What it offered, said Mr. Nambiar, was an instant solution on modest service charge.
“First, it doesn’t require you to have a website for setting up a payment gateway. There is no hefty installation fee either.
“Merchants can sign up online and start accepting payments from that very moment.
“For instance, if a customer places an order with a grocery shop which has a Payd ID, the payment can be done on the Payd website, which will be notified to the grocer in real-time.
‘Mobile payment’
“Registered mobile users can avail of the facility on their cell phones as well. A fraction of the order amount is levied as transaction fee,” he said.
Awaiting RBI nod
Founded by Mr. Nambiar and Rajkumar Nagarajan, Payd is currently awaiting approval from the Reserve Bank of India (which is expected in four weeks’ time) for a pilot launch of the product with a select group of maybe 50 clients, with operations based in Bangalore and Chennai.
Services of trained agents would be used to expand their footprint across India, Mr. Nambiar added.
