M-payment startup Beam Money crosses Rs 100Cr revenues, claims break-even

Delhi-based mobile payment startup Beam Money Pvt Ltd is closing the current financial year with revenues of over Rs 100 crore and claims to have hit the break-even point. The company is looking to triple its revenues by the end of the next fiscal ending March 2014, a top company executive told Techcircle.in.

Set up in 2009, the firm's flagship product is Beam Money, which is essentially a mobile wallet enabling users to transact for services like mobile and DTH recharge, rail/air ticket booking, utility bills payment, shopping and money transfer. It has a B2B, as well as a B2C business model.

In the B2B space, the company ties up with local merchants to offer the services while in B2C, consumers directly register for services via its WAP site, app, the internet or even through SMS. It claims to have around 14 million users currently (up from 5 million last we wrote on them here) and around 50,000 merchants on board.

Talking to Techcircle.in, Beam Money chairman and managing director Anand Srivastava said that by next year, the firm is targeting to double its user base by hitting the 25 million mark. "Seeing our growth over the past years, it is a conservative estimate that we are looking at," he added.

Beam Money is backed by Gray Ghost Ventures and Doon Foundation from whom it raised around $10 million in 2009. It is now looking to raise its second round of funding.

The company has launched a slew of services since its first foray into the market. In November last year, it launched cash-on-delivery service which can be used to re-load the mobile wallet. The service was launched as a pilot and is currently available in 11 cities.

Last month, it came up with a mobile companion pre-paid card in partnership with MasterCard. The prepaid card works with Beam's account and integrates with a user's mobile number. It enables consumers to transact at physical outlets, online and also at ATMs.

Beam competes with other services like ItzCash, ngpay and telecom major Airtel's mobile wallet Airtel Money. Also active in the market are mobile payment apps from banks like ICICI which offer similar services. Beam Money, however, targets the unbanked population who don't have a credit/debit card.

"If you talk of debit cards, there are only 200 million debit cards in India and the market we address is much larger – almost 4-5 times of this number. We want to reach out to people who don't have an account for some reason and thus can't use the traditional plastic money. Also, it will be effective in tier II and tier III cities where mobile usage is higher and plastic money is not very active as of now," added Srivastava.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)