I magine booking tickets for a movie on a leading portal for a fast-selling film. You key in your card details, go through the authentication process and then the transaction fails and your movie plans go for a toss.
It is in these situations that Simpl, an online payment instrument, helps by allowing customers to buy now and settle the bill at a later date. Simpl was co-founded by Chaitra Chidanand and Nitya Sharma. The founders faced issues in opening bank accounts in India, after staying abroad for many years. They realised that despite the rise of e-commerce in India, payment options were not very efficient. The founders point out, “Very often, online transactions fail because of multiple factors, ranging from card payments being declined to the one-time password not reaching the customer in time or banking server issues. We wanted to build a system that makes this process easier. We tied up with a clutch of companies from BookMyShow to Faasos. You just have to click twice and you can order your favourite food or book tickets for your favourite movie. Trust is an important component when dealing with money. With Simpl, you do not spend money in any of these activities directly. You will get an itemised bill of your purchases every month on the app. It is much more convenient. We have had more than seven million users try out the app. We have had instances of companies such as BookMyShow use Simpl to make a customer happy, in case of a failed transaction.”
Roshan V, one of the employees, explains how it works and says, “If you decide to book your tickets from BookMyShow or eat from Faasos, when you get to the checkout option, you see an option called pay later with Simpl. Your amount is immediately deducted from the credit limit Simpl has offered to you. The bill has to be paid on every 1st or 16th of the month. Your account is linked with your phone number.”
They add, “We aim at providing financial services to everyone with a smartphone with a click of a button, in real time. We do not charge our customers anything extra. Our revenue is mostly derived from the service providers.” With the move towards a cashless economy initiated by the union government, the founders feel that such platforms will be helpful.
“Many Indians are not very confident sharing their card details online and prefer cash-on-delivery payments. We aim at changing that situation. The technical aspects should not interfere with a customer’s paying experience. Our app makes it fast and seamless and brings down the failed transaction rates,” says Roshan.
