Digital payments major Pine Labs has launched an All Tap PoS app which can convert a smartphone into a soft PoS terminal and accept contactless card payments.
The company has set a target of getting around a million merchants with this product within the next one year.
The company
Pine Labs believes that with this product they can help debit and credit cards to start getting used much more in the market, thereby competing with QR code based payments which are processed through a smartphone.
“While COVID had affected our business initially, we have seen a sharp recovery, we were adding around 25,000 merchants every month between October and November,” said Amrish Rau, chief executive officer, Pine Labs.
Product Features
The company claims that with this product being rolled out, even micro merchants and homepreneurs can start accepting card payments without having to invest in bulky PoS terminals. Pine Labs is opening up the entire suit of payments across QR codes, UPI, link payments besides card transactions through this app.
“The company will require a KYC to be done on the merchant for their onboarding for which documents can be submitted digitally by the business owner, post that they can start using the app for accepting payments,” Rau added.
On the issue around relaxed KYC opening up chances of fraud, Rau stated that there is need for a fine balance between fraud checks and quick onboarding of merchants and Pine Labs is trying to balance out regulatory requirements and its aggressive business targets.
Security Standards
A PoS machine was not just a payment acceptance terminal, it had multiple security layers in-built which made the device safe for payment transactions. Given Pine Labs wants to convert a smartphone into a terminal, it said it undertook rigorous safety checks before going live.
Speaking on the occasion, Sanjeev Kumar, chief technology officer, Pine Labs said that they have taken the concept from a PCI CPOC guidelines which talk about how off the shelf smartphones can be converted into PoS terminals. Payments Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCISSC) is an international payment standards organisation which sets basic security protocols for the digital payments industry.
To enhance the security features of the app, it uses latest Android 8’s security features, uses the in-built device fingerprint for verification and adheres to the PCI guidelines. The company has approvals from card networks like RuPay, Visa and Mastercard as well and has received a green signal from its partner banks too.
Future Roadmap
Pine Labs has set an ambitious target to digitise freelancers, homepreneurs and micro business owners, it has set into motion a large marketing campaign around this product as well.
“We are doing a national launch and using our physical as well as digital distribution channels to reach out to the maximum number of merchants possible,” said Nitish Asthana, chief operating officer, Pine Labs.
For merchants, the onboarding process has been kept very simple, with the only requirement of an NFC enabled smartphone which has the latest Android support. The business needs to support its application with business ID like Pan number or GST number and some bank account details before they can go live with the payments.
“There are around 11% of all smartphones being sold in India which are NFC enabled, so we are sure that most of our target merchants will be able to start using it,” Asthana said.
Pine Labs will also open up the payment feature for new merchants with certain limits and as the business volume goes up, payment transaction limits will continue to climb higher, the company said.
“In the future our API layers can be connected with third party business apps and they can use the All Tap app to collect payments from their customers too,” Rau added. Some of these features are still under development.
