PayU Receives RBI Authorization to Operate as Payments Aggregator

PayU has received in-principle authorization from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payments aggregator.

With this approval, the digital financial services provider can start onboarding new merchants to its platform, PayU said in a Tuesday (April 23) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

“This license is pivotal in our mission to establish a globally renowned digital payment infrastructure rooted in India,” Anirban Mukherjee, CEO of PayU, said in the release. “Aligned with the government’s Digital India initiative and the RBI’s forward-thinking regulations, we are dedicated to driving digitization and financial inclusion, particularly for small merchants.”

Mukherjee attributed PayU’s receipt of in-principle authorization to the company’s focus on compliance and corporate governance, per the release.

Businesses across sectors and of different sizes have expressed interest in joining PayU’s platform, the release said.

PayU Payments operates businesses that are regulated by the RBI and offers digital payment solutions for the Indian market, according to the release. The company aims to serve eCommerce brands, banks and consumers.

“The RBI’s in-principle approval underpins the company’s mission to build a world-leading digital payment infrastructure that originates from India, for India and the world, accelerating its next growth phase in India,” the press release said.

In another expansion of its services, PayU said in September that it partnered with Meta-owned messaging app WhatsApp to bring in-chat payments to India.

The company said at the time that this partnership would provide WhatsApp-enabled PayU merchants with access to the PayU Checkout platform, which lets customers use more than 150 payment options, including cards, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and net banking, directly within the WhatsApp platform, with no need for redirection.

Also in September, PayU India introduced new tools to help businesses address various challenges like cart abandonment and scalability troubles.

The company’s CommercePro stack contains features designed to increase conversions by making payments easier, provide data insights about consumers to promote customer acquisition, and deliver artificial intelligence (AI)-powered recommendations to enhance cross-selling, upselling and personalized customer interactions.

“This comprehensive toolkit, fueled by Indian innovation and technology built out of India, addresses real world pain points with new avenues for success,” Manas Mishra, chief product officer at PayU, said in a press release announcing the launch of the tools.