In a first-of-its-kind partnership, MobiKwik ties up with ICICI Bank. Now for the first time in the country users can add cash to their mobile wallet via ICICI Bank
- ICICI Bank to collect cash payments from MobiKwik customers across more than 4000 branches in the country.
- The tie-up opens up opportunities for all those who wish to make digital payments, but are not comfortable with internet banking or using their debit or credit card online.
- Over 17 million existing MobiKwik customers and millions of new users to benefit from the tie-up.
New Delhi, May 27, 2015: In a bid to bridge the digital payments divide for those who do not have bank accounts or do not access net banking, MobiKwik, India’s leading mobile wallet today announced its partnership with ICICI Bank that allows adding of direct cash to the mobile wallet. This is the first time a partnership of this nature has been struck between a mobile wallet and a bank. The partnership will benefit over 17 million MobiKwik users who will now be able to walk into any of the four thousand ICICI Bank branches across the country, load cash into their mobile wallet, and make easy payments for online shopping, recharge, and utility bills. Once cash is added, users can also send money to their family and friends.
To make the process of adding cash easy, MobiKwik has come up with a new feature on their app called CashPay. To load money in the wallet via cash, users will have to select ‘CashPay’ on the app and mention the amount and their name. The MobiKwik app will then generate a unique ‘Order ID’ and provide the user with contact details of the nearest ICICI Bank branches. The user can go to one of those branches or any other ICICI branch that is convenient and use the regular ‘Cash Deposit Slip’ to upload money into his or her MobiKwik wallet. Once the amount is deposited, it will immediately get reflected in the customer’s mobile wallet. CashPay is already live and functional for users in Delhi-NCR. The feature will be made available pan-India soon.
While India has over 970 million mobile subscribers, the number of households that have bank accounts stands at just 210 million. This shows the potential for mobile-based banking services in the country, where millions of customers do not have access to bank accounts. Also, of those who do have bank accounts, a majority of them do not use their credit or debit card online or do have not internet banking for various reasons. The CashPay feature of MobiKwik wallet makes it possible for even those set of users to start transacting online.
Bipin Preet Singh, Founder and CEO, MobiKwik, “We are proud to be the first mobile wallet in the country to allow adding of direct cash into the wallet. We believe our tie-up with India’s largest private-sector bank – ICICI, is a big step forward for the entire mobile payments industry as it paves the way for not only unbanked customers to access digital services, but also brings those millions of users into the fold who experience difficulty in exercising net banking or making any online payment with their debit or credit cards. This is a big step for us in our vision to have over 100 million users by the end of 2015. We expect to strike more such tie-ups going ahead.”
MobiKwik recently raised close to $25 million in a Series B round from Tree Line Asia, Cisco Investments, American Express and existing investor, Sequoia Capital. The company plans to raise another $100 million in the latter half of 2015. MobiKwik plans to disrupt the payments space further in 2015 by creating an offline retail network of more than 100,000 merchants across India that will serve both as points for cash loading into the wallet and for wallet payments acceptance. The company has recently tied up with Café Coffee Day as a first step in its journey to enable mobile wallet based payments at physical retail chains across the country. MobiKwik had also applied for a Payments Bank license in February 2015.
MobiKwik (One MobiKwik Systems Private Limited) is India’s leading Mobile Wallet company. With over 17 Million users and more than 50,000 merchants (retailers), the MobiKwik Wallet enables users to pay in a flash for their mobile recharge and bill payments, to shop on merchants like Café Coffee Day, Myntra, PVR, Domino’s, Pizza Hut, JustEat, eBay, Jabong, ShopClues, HomeShop18, Naaptol, Pepperfry, Fashionara, FashionAndYou, Cleartrip, MakeMyTrip and BookMyShow and to send and receive money from friends. Users can enjoy MobiKwik Wallet services on the website as well as its Android, Windows and iOS mobile applications. The company has raised close to $30 million in funding till now and its investors include Tree Line Asia, Cisco Investments, American Express and Sequoia Capital.
