Calpian’s Money-On-Mobile Transacting Strong Growth

Money-On-Mobile, Calpian’s Mumbai subsidiary, increased transaction processing volume to 2.012 billion Indian Rupees ($31.9 million) in April — an increase of 14.1 percent over March’s levels.

Calpian said in a statement Thursday (May 7) that Money-On-Mobile grew its unique user tally by 3.3 million over the same timeframe, with a user base of roughly 7.1 million in March. Of that, slightly more than half, or 3.8 million, were repeat users. The mobile payments service provider lets consumers in India use mobile devices to make payments or transfer funds using SMS text. The service is available at nearly 260,000 retail locations throughout India, up 6,702 locations from the previous month.

Since its inception, the company has seen continual growth across the region as it aims to provide a cheap and efficient way for India’s cash-centric population to pay their bills using a mobile device.

“Money-On-Mobile services continue to increase in volume,” said Shashank Joshi, Money-On-Mobile’s founder and managing director. “We introduced our Domestic Remittance product (person-to-person transfers) to the market in December, 2014, and in April, we saw approximately $8 million in volume with over 138,000 transactions. This remarkable growth is part of the increase in the overall volume transacted this month.”

In March, Money-On-Mobile hit a transaction processing volume of $29.3 million (1.762 billion rupees), which is a 27.1 percent increase from February’s figures. Since launching in 2010, Money-On-Mobile has been accessed by 131 million users, and in March alone the company grew by 3.5 million unique users.

In a recent interview with PYMNTS.com, Joshi noted the retail-assisted model is driving Money-On-Mobile’s growth. Allowing consumers to pay in cash, and then execute that transaction using a mobile phone has created a relatively seamless bill paying experience – and sets the stage for further mobile transactions.

What the company has managed to achieve is the ability to deliver a mobile payment solution to India’s urban and rural populations — a region in which 600 million people are unbanked, according to Money-On-Mobile. Allowing consumers to pay in cash, and being able to later execute that transaction using a mobile phone has eliminated the friction associated with how bills are paid, creating a base of consumers who can be enabled for other mobile transactions as well. And, it’s gotten the stamp of approval from the Reserve Bank of India.

With the regulators’ approval behind it, Mobile-On-Money’s growth shows it may be poised for mobile money success in an area where other companies have tried, and failed to ignite the mobile money scene.