Promoting Financial Inclusion

PhonePe's commitment to consumer convenience and value creation drives innovations in digital payments, expanding access and adoption

- Poonam Singh

DIGITAL PAYMENT services have revolutionised the entire payment industry, benefiting not only business people but also multiple vendors who encourage customers to “PhonePe karo.” “We take pride in the fact that a majority of our user base is from small towns and villages in India, which is a testament to the power of technology to democratise access,” says Deep Agrawal, Head of Payments, PhonePe.

The online payment solution provider has focused on enabling the acceptance of digital payment for merchants through its interoperable QRs in rural areas. Over 35 million merchants have accepted digital payments via the PhonePe QR, influencing consumers to adopt digital payments. “Today, over 75 per cent of our transactions originate from tier-2 and beyond cities, towns, and villages,” adds Agrawal.

The company has always prioritised consumer convenience and value creation. As a leader in the digital payments space, it has consistently launched new offerings to attract consumers, like the Aadhaar-based UPI onboarding, UPI international, UPI LITE, SmartSpeaker in 11 Indian languages, a merchant lending platform enabling banks and NBFCs, and a point-of-sale (POS) device. Its open ecosystem approach is a key differentiator from others in the space and has been ingrained since inception. “The open ecosystem approach has facilitated the creation of numerous hooks and connections among various ecosystem players, enabling consumers, merchants, and service providers to engage and transact with each other at scale,” says Agarwal.