NEW DELHI:Since March 1, when the Reserve Bank of India guidelines prohibited users who do not comply with the KYC (Know Your Customer) norms to load money into their e-wallet accounts or carry out remittance-based transactions, it posed a serious challenge to many wallet players as the number of digital payment transactions took a dip.
However, for the home-grown digital payment player MobiKwik, the new norms, after some initial hiccups, brought a wave of new opportunities, said MobiKwik co-founder Upasana Taku. She said the new guidelines will consolidate the segment and separate doers from posers.“Many e-commerce and cab aggregator players who entered the wallet business are finding it difficult and expensive to comply with the new norms. It has created an environment for people who are looking to do serious business,” she said.
The firm claimed that 40-45 per cent of their users have completed their KYC and are seeing a jump in their transaction figures. Currently, it is giving cash backs of up to Rs 300 to users who do their KYC.
Taku said the customers who have done their KYC are regular users who trust the firm with their personal information, a key thing for the company to venture into other segments.MobiKwik has been eyeing to launch lending services and financial products such as insurance policies on their platform. The amount of user data they have, coupled with KYC, opens several doors for the firm, Taku said. “We realise that from our existing business, we are collecting a lot of data and if we don’t know what to do with that, we are missing a lot of opportunity. Now with KYC, which is relevant for financial services, we can provide the best to users because we know a lot about them,” she said.
The company is yet to launch the aforesaid services along with the lending service, where it offers consumers to borrow from Rs 10,000 to Rs 5 lakh.The nine-year-old firm also feels that the new services will help them become profitable. At present, MobiKwik losses are more than its revenue. With nearly 60 million customers, it claims that its payment business is growing 3x-4x year-on-year.
The MobiKwik co-founder said it will take them two more years to turn profitable as they continue to require money for building and supporting a big merchant base of three million and add users in its platforms. Last year, Bajaj Finance had invested Rs 225 crore in the firm. It has plans to raise more money in future.