BUSINESS
Behind the Lite touch regulation for UPI
The central bank's proposals to accelerate the adoption of UPI Lite make it clear that UPI's success is essential for the NPCI to seamlessly process one billion transactions per day.
BUSINESS
Vijay Shekhar Sharma goes all in, is now the largest shareholder in Paytm
An overseas entity owned by Sharma will acquire 10.3 percent stake in Paytm from Antfin through an off-market transfer. On closing of this transaction, Sharma’s shareholding in Paytm will increase to 19.42 percent, whereas Antfin’s shareholding will reduce to 13.5 percent
BUSINESS
A new UPI innovation has PhonePe and Google Pay worried
While NPCI and online merchants are gung ho about the new innovation, which enables faster payments, the UPI apps are probably worried about any potential challenge to their dominance on the mobile payments platform.
BUSINESS
PayU plans to list in India next year, looking at $6 billion valuation, say sources
PayU India reported $400 million in revenue for FY23, registering a growth of 31 percent. Going by its growth and profitability, the company could seek a valuation of somewhere between $4-$6 billion, sources said
BUSINESS
Why Payment Aggregator licences are stuck for months
According to experts, the delay may be due to the stringent approval process that is aimed at ensuring transparency, standardisation and trust in India’s fintech ecosystem
BUSINESS
Swiggy takes cobranded credit card battle to Amazon and Flipkart turf, with a catch
The Swiggy-HDFC co-branded credit card is offering five percent cashbacks for purchases on Amazon and Flipkart, which is same as that of what the ecommerce companies are offering to their credit card customers. The only catch being the cashback will be deposited as Swiggy Money and can be used only on Swiggy.
BUSINESS
The crisscrossing paths of Flipkart and PhonePe
Flipkart and PhonePe relationship is today looking like a Venn diagram where the investors and consumers meet, but the organisations are charting a distinct path for themselves as independent companies. This has probably made them compete with each other in financial services such as lending and insurance. And that is not incidental.
BUSINESS
Generative AI can transform customer service: Sendbird's Shailesh Nalawadi
However, the expectations has to be trumped as the hype around past advances in AI has died down. For instance, in the healthcare sector, there were expectations that the software trained on a million x rays or blood samples can predict cancer cell growth and so on. With hindsight, these has been proved to be at best an assistant to a doctor.
BUSINESS
Amazon Pay continues to lose UPI market share as multi-pronged payment strategy leaves users confused
Amazon's confusing payment strategy has given the company mixed results. While its credit card has been a sensational success, its UPI payments has seen a decline at a time when the platform has become the go-to digital payment option for a large segment of the population.
BUSINESS
Cashfree exploring strategic sale, Pine Labs emerges as frontrunner
While Cashfree is asking for $1.2 billion, the suitors are seeing only $600 million value at the top end for the company, sources have told Moneycontrol
BUSINESS
A funding winter’s tale: Corporate governance failures hold many lessons for startups
VC funds are likely to ask for revenue recognition clarity and regular audit reports. And they will likely prod founders to hire independent directors.
BUSINESS
Apple taps HDFC Bank to launch credit card, in talks with NPCI for Apple Pay
This comes in the wake of Apple's decision to stop card payments in India on its App Store and for its iCloud services. The credit card could also see significant changes from the US model, where Apple takes control of the business. In India, banks control the credit card issuance and run the business.
BUSINESS
After disrupting payment gateway business, fintechs go after transaction banking pie
However, they face a slew of challenges, ranging from capital adequacy while facilitating trillions of rupees in volumes, to regulations that state that for such a high volume of payments, there should be multiple vendors, reducing the pricing power of these startups. Even though it is early days, a strong business model is yet to evolve
BUSINESS
Behind RBI's move to cap FLDG at 5% and why it’s not good news for fintechs
FLDG is a popular product used by fintechs to partner with lenders. It helps banks and NBFCs cover potential losses that occur when customers default on payments
BUSINESS
PhonePe leads digital monthly bill payments as volumes surge by 50% in one year
the National Payments Corporation of India-owned BBPS is looking to enter the enterprise utility bill payment space this year by partnering with a couple of startups. While enterprise billing constitutes only 12-15% of the total bills paid, in terms of value this is close to 35%.
BUSINESS
Why fintechs are cheering RBI’s guideline allowing 5% default loss cover
Earlier, banks and NBFCs could not enter into default loan guarantee arrangements with unregulated lending service providers. Now they can, with judicious and reasonable risk sharing between the two
BUSINESS
Broker Network founder Rahul Yadav asks for two weeks to consider Info Edge's forensic audit request
Rahul Yadav has been asking Info Edge for more money in lieu of sharing the data its investor has asked for.
BUSINESS
MC Interview | Global profit-sharing agreement dissolved, will double down on India: Peak XV's Shailendra Singh
The profit pooling with Sequoia US will cease to exist post the rebranding. Peak XV will also likely enter the US to help Indian startups expand in the country, an indication that the India division will be run completely independent of Sequoia US.
BUSINESS
How Meta’s global team derailed WhatsApp India's payment ambitions
With over 600 million monthly active users and 500 million daily active users, WhatsApp had a golden opportunity to take the UPI crown from PhonePe. It was WhatsApp's game to lose, and the instant messaging platform lost it. And how.
BUSINESS
Rahul Yadav haggled with Info Edge to raise funds for Broker Network at 99% discount to last valuation
This was after the former Housing.com founder’s latest startup exhausted Rs 192 crore in the past 14 months and majority shareholder Info Edge asked it for granular financial details.
BUSINESS
Cred’s share of credit card payments shrinks, takes shine off premium offering
Over the past 16 months, most of Cred’s growth has come from UPI transactions rather than deeper engagements by its top credit card customers.
