Three years ago, when mobile wallets were slowly starting to make a mark in India, veterans from technology and banking backgrounds—Sharad Hegde, C S Prasad and Ritesh Agarwal—decided to set up fonePaisa, a company that allows secure flow of money digitally from consumers to merchants.
Ritesh Agarwal, one of the co-founders, says, “We were thinking about fonePaisa at a time when the RBI was coming up with mobile payment solutions. We were looking at creating solutions that integrated mobile payments and technology. We worked on creating an in-house interface and it took us a year-and-a-half to set up the company and offer solutions. CS Prasad and Sharad had worked together at Finacle, and I had a background in technology and banking.”
fonePaisa enables customers to pay with their smartphone, directly from their credit/debit card, net banking, UPI or mobile wallets, and offers a payment platform that can work on any technology, and can be accessed from anywhere on the planet.
Ritesh points out, “We are an aggregator of payment solutions based on technology innovation, and have attempted to make mobile payments easier, along with several value-added features, such as invoicing, reconciliation and communication on a single platform. We have built the technology in-house and want to offer a cashless and cardless option to our customers. We want to make it secure for both merchants and the end-consumer of our products.”
Ritesh explains, “Swiping cards at stores needs hardware and is expensive for the retailer because of the cost of the machine. We are helping merchants reduce their capital expenditure on devices. You can also conduct transactions simply using the web browser and the QR code. It works with all payment solutions in the country. The consumer no longer has to carry multiple cards or wallets all the time. Our focus is on engaging the merchants. We have a host of people from tour operators, and Kirana store owners to large corporates on the platform.”
On the future of the digital payments industry in India, Ritesh is optimistic. “I feel that most payment options will move to mobile phones. Device manufacturers, such as Samsung and Apple, will emerge as front runners in the field. India is one of the few countries where the government has entered this field as well.”
