Mobikwik's COO Mrinal Sinha on India's move to mobile payments: our only rival is cash
Post demonetisation, India is now moving towards a cashless economy. Digital wallets are becoming the new trend where brands like HIKE have already integrated unified payments interface (UPI), while WhatsApp is in talks to integrate payments. In future, Digital Payments, AI and VR will power the Indian economy.
Mobikwik's COO : MobiKwik will be India’s Smart Money app in the next 2-3 years / Mobikwik.com
The Drum spoke with Mrinal Sinha, COO, MobiKwik, a company that provides a mobile phone based payment system and digital wallets about its rivalry with Paytm, which has already opened a bank and made significant investments in the space.
How can digital payments transform India's economy?
India started a new chapter in governance and took the first step in making digital payments its new currency. The mobile wallet market in India is projected to exhibit a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 50% during 2016-2021, on account of growing online transactions, increasing internet penetration, coupled with a rising trend towards mobile banking. In 2016, India's mobile wallet market observed huge traction due to demonetisation of the INR 500 and INR 1000 currency notes by the government. In addition, the government has launched initiatives towards technological innovations by introducing Unified Payment Interface expanded mobile wallet market across the country.
Further, Reserve Bank of India's move to increase semi-closed payment instrument limit is also anticipated to propel growth in the country's mobile wallet market during the forecast period. The growth is further going to be fuelled by a growing awareness regarding the benefits of mobile wallets, rising smartphone and mobile internet penetration rates, and increasing security measures are expected to drive growth in India mobile wallet market.
This rise of digital payments in the country and the cap by the government on the use of physical currency is aimed towards making the Indian economy stronger and self-reliant. We have won a small battle against black money and corruption, and with the advent of GST now, this is being further strengthened.
Paytm has started its own bank. Do you plan to do the same? Do you consider them as your biggest rival in the Indian market?
Our only rival is cash. As an industry, so far, we have only reached out to 14% of Indians, and there is a long way to go.
At MobiKwik, our vision is to fulfill financial aspirations of a billion Indians, providing banking services to the underserved and unserved, but without being a bank. We see better value in working on our vision with collaboration. MobiKwik will be India’s Smart Money app in the next 2-3 years that will be the distribution platform for all financial services, such as payments, investments, insurance and lending. We will partner with financial institutions for the same.
Tell us about your recent partnerships.
In the recent months we have associated with several government and private companies, with a vision to make digital payments widespread and make MobiKwik ubiquitous. MobiKwik has joined hands with kaali-peeli ride hailing app, 'Aamchi Drive', as its official wallet partner to digitize one of the 110 years old public transport service in India. We have also partnered with India’s state-owned telecommunications major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to develop BSNL wallet, powered by MobiKwik for the company’s 95 million customers. Some of our other partnerships include National Highways Authority of India, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, Amul, Verka, Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation and Xiami/Mi.com.