Mobile Payment Startup Taps Into Indian Villages

Ezetap, a mobile payment startup, wants to connect small Indian villages with business and is using its mPoS to do so, Business Standard reported.

This three-year old Bangalore-based company, which is supported by investors like PayPal founder Peter Thiel, said its mobile payment solution for small towns in villages in India can also help with financial inclusion. India has struggled with issues of financial inclusion because of operating costs, Business Standard said, but technologies like Ezetap can provide those can provide an “efficient, secure and cost-effective alternative. And though its a startup, it’s got major bank backing.

“Global banking giant Citibank has approved Ezetap’s service as the first mobile Point of Sale (mPoS) service globally, while the company is payments technology major Visa’s global preferred mPoS partner outside of the US/Europe,” Business Standard reported.

What Ezetap’s mobile payment platform has brought to India is a cost-effective alternative in small villages in India and connected them with banks, insurance companies and online shopping sites through its mPoS that turns any mobile device into a payment terminal. Having the ability to pay directly from a bank account can also give consumers in these small towns and villages the confidence to keep money in the bank.

“Access to cash is seen as a key requirement of banking and most financial inclusion initiatives have had limited success. People are rightfully paranoid with the idea that when they urgently need access to cash, they have to travel 20 km to the neighboring town and eventually find an ATM,” Ezetap Co-founder and CEO Abhijit Bose said in the article. “Ezetap is the only mPoS company who do their own design, hardware manufacturing, software development, integration with banks as well as customers’ back end Online transaction processing systems, to offer a complete solution to business problems.”