New Delhi [India], August 10 (ANI/SRV):
that has specialized in gold loans for over a century has picked up 54 per cent stake in Hyderabad-based fintech start-up Paymatrix by buying out investors as part of its added focus on the digital segment.
Paymatrix is a fintech company that was set up in 2016 by Mukesh Chandra Anchuri and Muralidhar Nayak Guguloth as a platform to enable individuals and businesses to make their payments such as rental advances, security deposits, and maintenance on credit cards.
"We started with a small use-case of offering rent-related payments on credit cards to eventually evolve into a Virtual swiping machine or a soft PoS(Point-Of-Sale) enabling
. The idea of Paymatrix was conceived when we faced a similar situation of arranging 300,000 INR as rental deposits to our landlord in Bombay," divulged Mukesh, Chief Executive Officer of Paymatrix.
Since their landlords didn't accept any credit card payments, Mukesh and Muralidhar seeded the idea of a platform that can assist individuals to meet the liquidity requirement for large-ticket payments or unforeseen expenses. Muralidhar goes on to say that their Paymatrix app enables individuals and businesses to use their credit cards to pay for any expense into the bank account of the recipient.
It is like a digital swiping machine / Virtual PoS and this stands to be Paymatrix's core value proposition too. Individuals can pay Rent, Maintenance, Vendors, Tuition fees etc. and Businesses can pay for expenses such as Payroll, Suppliers and Vendors directly into their bank account using a Credit card.
"We facilitate various value-added services to the customers such as-
, rent payments, utility bill payments (electricity, mobile postpaid, landline postpaid, broadband postpaid, education fees, etc) and even recharge payments (DTH, cable TV, housing, society, etc) using a credit card. So we are evolving into a full-stack fintech app from being a payments-focused app," apprised Muralidhar, co-founder and CTO at Paymatrix. The founders believe that the app has aptly bridged the gap between the payers and merchants too.
India is one of the rapidly growing markets for credit card proliferation. The record from RBI shows that the country has a base of 71 million credit cards as of April 2022 and about 9.03 Lac Cr has been spent on the same during the year 2021-2022.
About 45 per cent of these spends are done on PoS terminals which are roughly estimated to be around 4.7 million in 2021. While the proliferation of credit cards is roughly growing at 40-45 per cent per annum, the market is not seeing a commensurate growth in PoS issuance or a radical change in the way payments are accepted in the Indian cities.
The same warrants a need for a Soft PoS/Virtual PoS wherein your mobile can work like a swiping machine thus breaking the barrier of form factor. Mukesh goes on to further add that, "Imagine a scenario where a mobile app on your smartphone can be used to collect payments from anyone via any payment mode, be it credit card, debit card, net banking, UPI, wallets, and the likes. Paymatrix simplifies the problem by working like that much-needed Virtual PoS or swiping machine." No hassles of maintenance of a PoS machine or a Payment gateway link, it is that convenient!
Mukesh and Murali were fortunate to have the backing of some coveted early-stage investors in the market such as Smart City Dubai, XSeed Partners, IIIT-H Seed Fund, IIIT-H Foundation, SucSEED Ventures, and the likes. However, May 2021 was a watershed moment for them, when the Muthoot Pappachan Group invested and acquired a majority stake in Paymatrix.
"Muthoot Pappachan Group being one of the biggest financial powerhouses in India with its offering in various financial products like lending, insurance, chits, and the likes, shares a common vision of what we would like to transform Paymatrix into," added Mukesh. Beyond the role of an investor, the MPG group is closely supporting them in transforming Paymatrix into a full-stack payment application leveraging on their skills, experience, and expertise in the finance domain.
The payments market in India has come a long way in terms of simplifying the form factor and underlying technology to serve the masses.
Guguloth adds that, "Paymatrix started off with solving the problem of a small focus group of credit card holders. We are now working on establishing our application to host a wider and stronger value proposition that can enable us to acquire and retain a larger target customer segment." The application is geared to work like a true Virtual PoS with a host of value-added services such as paying credit card bills, credit score tracker, recharges, bill payments, quick loans, overdraft facilities, savings in digital gold, and the likes.
India has been at the forefront when it comes to the fintech revolution. The subcontinent is amidst the most innovative and radically evolving fintech market in the world. "Our country has been at the forefront when it comes to fintech. We have seen several remarkable initiatives like Jan Dhan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, UPI, Rupay Cards, Payment aggregator systems, and the likes.
The evolving fintech market demands us to be agile enough to embrace innovation faster than ever. At Paymatrix, we are building a team and culture in a way that we can embrace this change and be a part of it for the greater good," concluded Mukesh Chandra Anchuri of Paymatrix.
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