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Tag: freecharge

FreeCharge Founder Kunal Shah Rolls Out a New Venture Cred
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FreeCharge Founder Kunal Shah Rolls Out a New Venture Cred

Kunal Shah, the founder of digital payment company FreeCharge has rolled out his own new venture known as Cred which is a financial services platform targeting consumers with high creditworthiness. For the launch of this startup, the founder has already raised an amount of $25 million (about Rs 177 crore) in funding led by Sequoia Capital and financial technology-focussed fund Ribbit Capital. With this new startup, the consumers will be able to pay their credit card bills and get rewarded in the form of Cred Coins. The basic idea behind this new venture is to tap into the country’s growing credit card base and push products to consumers with high credit scores and offer to them rewards and benefits. “There is a lot of lack of awareness around credit card payments among a majority of...
RBI to Introduce Mobile Wallet Interoperability Soon
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RBI to Introduce Mobile Wallet Interoperability Soon

While the mobile wallet industry is emerging at an impressive pace in India, it now is looking actively for the Reserve Bank of India to release interoperability guidelines for the industry. Notably, RBI's master directions on Mandatory KYC compliance (Issuance and Operation of Pre-paid Payment Instruments) that came in October 2017 had proposed digital wallets to become interoperable within six months. However, the following discussions with stakeholders had postponed the decision. If sources are to be belived RBI is now determined to bring wallet interoperability rules in a month with a delay of two months after the deadline A report quoting bankers published by ET said, The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has already cleared the safety security aspects of taking wal...
PhonePe on The Ladder of Success, Crossed 100 Million Users
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PhonePe on The Ladder of Success, Crossed 100 Million Users

The Bengaluru-based Flipkart-owned company PhonePe has reportedly made its way across 100 million registered users on its platform in less than two years of its inauguration. The company's annual total payments volume (TPV) have also received a boost crossing $20 billion in the month of May. Paytm, the firm's close rival stated its annualised transactions amounting to $29 billion through its platform performing 63 million transactions in April, while the Digital payments firm PhonPe has performed 60 million transactions with a total of 30 million customers using Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in the month of May which is quite close to its competitor. “We have gone from launch to 100 million users in just 21 months. Our next goal is to onboard a million merchants for our customers, a...
FreeCharge Co-founder Kunal Shah raises $30 Mn via Sequoia Capital
FUNDING

FreeCharge Co-founder Kunal Shah raises $30 Mn via Sequoia Capital

Kunal Shah, Co-founder of Payment company Freecharge has successfully raised $30 million from a group of investors led by led by venture capital investor Sequoia Capital, as reported by the sources. Kunal is starting a new incubator that would be dedicated to helping startups in consumer space. One of the sources on request of anonymity said, The funding round has been closed and Kunal has raised over $30 Million to start his new venture that will be launched very soon. He has raised funds mostly from foreign investors. Sequoia has also invested in his new venture. Sequoia the leader in the investment round has been associated with Kunal for quite some time. In February 2017, Kunal joined marquee venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as an advisory role, which came to an end this Ja...
Flipkarts Payment Arm PhonePe Collaborated With Rival FreeCharge
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Flipkarts Payment Arm PhonePe Collaborated With Rival FreeCharge

Flipkarts payment wallet PhonePe today said it has partnered mobile wallet company FreeCharge to allow the latters customers pay for transactions at PhonePes partner merchants. According to the deal terms, PhonePe has now enabled its over 45 million users to link their existing FreeCharge wallets to the PhonePe app, PhonePe said in a statement. Once linked, PhonePe customers will be able to spend their FreeCharge wallet balance at all online and offline merchant outlets that accept payments via PhonePe, it added. "This is in line with our vision of making PhonePe Indias first truly open payments platform, where customers can use any and all payment instruments of their choice," PhonePe Head Banking Products and Strategic Partnerships Hemant Gala said. To pay via FreeCharge on P...
PayPal Starts Payment Services In India
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PayPal Starts Payment Services In India

Payment processor PayPal Holdings Inc on Wednesday launched domestic operations in India, a market already dominated by China’s Alibaba-backed PayTM, the country’s leading digital payments firm. PayPal’s entry in the Indian market comes as a push for cashless transactions by the Narendra Modi-led government is seeing more people use e-wallets and card payments. The online payment industry is pegged to grow tenfold to $500 billion by 2020. “India is transitioning away from our biggest competitor – cash – and our digital platform and technology has immense scope to enable this at scale,” Anupam Pahuja, country manager and managing director, PayPal India said. “For us, the marathon has just begun.” Alphabet Inc’s Google launched a localized payments app for India in September, tryi...
‘This Is The Best Time For Our Business’ Says Kunal Bahl
Entrepreneurs Talk

‘This Is The Best Time For Our Business’ Says Kunal Bahl

Kunal Bahl comments on the sale of Freecharge to Axis Bank, says it will provide Snapdeal the "necessary boost in resources" to continue its e-commerce journey. Just hours after the deal was announced, Bahl wrote to employees seeking to assuage concerns saying Axis Bank intends to not just retain all Freecharge employees but also "invest significantly" in the team and brand. His comments also assume significance amid reports that the Snapdeal board is leaning towards selling the e-commerce company to Flipkart. Snapdeal earlier announced the sale of Freecharge to Axis Bank for $60 million, which was much lower than the price of $400 million for which it bought Freecharge  back in 2015. Bahl referred to the transaction with Axis Bank was "a great outcome". "They intend to retain...
Axis Bank Cracks The Deal To Buy Freecharge From Snapdeal
ACQUISITION

Axis Bank Cracks The Deal To Buy Freecharge From Snapdeal

India's third largest private sector lender Axis Bank Ltd is all set to buy digital payments platform Freecharge from Snapdeal for amount nearing Rs 400 Cr, a much needed relief for Snapdeal. This payments platform has been seeking a suitable buyer since long, even as its parent company negotiates the terms for its own sale. By this acquisition, Axis Bank will get a popular digital payments platform and access to high-quality tech, which will give it an upper-hand over other banks. Axis Bank and Freecharge are likely to announce the deal this week, two people familiar with the matter said, on condition of anonymity. Paytm was also in the lead to acquire Freecharge but Freecharge chose to go with Axis Bank, due to higher bid. The sale of Freecharge will mark the most stunning co...
Axis Bank In The Race To Acquire Freecharge
ACQUISITION

Axis Bank In The Race To Acquire Freecharge

Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector lender has emerged as one of the key-runner in the race to acquire e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal owned Freecharge, a digital payments platform founded by Kunal Shah. This payments platform has been seeking a suitable buyer since long, even as its parent company negotiates the terms for its own sale. Axis Bank is currently conducting due diligence on FreeCharge. According to M&A experts, the deal may turn out to a be of USD 20-50 million to Snapdeal. FreeCharge was earlier acquired by Jasper in 2015 in a cash-and-stock deal estimated around USD 400-450 million in what was the largest acquisition of any Indian startup back then. Freecharge has been in continuous talks with many companies for the past one year, but nothing seem...
FreeCharge Crosses 500 Million Transactions
News

FreeCharge Crosses 500 Million Transactions

Bangalore, Karnataka, India- Amidst increasing digital payments preference and awareness amongst consumers, FreeCharge today announced that the number of transactions on its platform has crossed 500 million, with the value of these transactions exceeding USD 1.2 billion. Mobile recharges remain the biggest component of the transactions done on FreeCharge. Apart from recharges, nearly 20% of the wallet transactions happening on the platform are on one of the company’s online merchant partners. This is closely followed by offline partnerships wherein Fuel and Food are the top two categories driving adoption and transaction. The company also recently announced the launch of coupons on its e-wallet to enhance user engagement, where users can benefit from every recharge and bill...