Mastercard partners with PaySwiff to boost digital payments in small-town India

Global payments giant Mastercard has tied up with point-of-sale (PoS) solutions provider Payswiff to boost the acceptance of digital payments in Tier-II and Tier-III cities in India.

“The strategic alliance will cut across non-traditional distribution channels to promote low-cost payments acceptance solutions beyond the top eight cities in the country,” the companies said in a statement.

Payswiff’s mobile application SET is at the core of this alliance. It allows individuals and business owners to accept payments using more than 60 payment options, including credit cards and debit cards, e-wallets, e-payment links, UPI, Bharat QR, and multi-bank EMI.

The partnership will allow Mastercard to work with Payswiff on an omnichannel distribution strategy to offer the app, services and support in regional languages, especially in areas where PoS machines are not easily accessible, the statement added.

The partnership will also focus on innovation and addition of new functionalities such as ‘same-day’ and ‘instant’ merchant settlements.

“This will hugely benefit the micro merchants in small cities as they will be able to unlock additional revenue streams using embedded features in the app such as mobile recharges, utility bill payments, and bus ticketing. Over 40% of Payswiff’s business comes from tier 2, 3 and 4 towns and cities,” the statement added.  

Payswiff plans to expand its services to over 3,000 locations in rural India, up from 1,700 locations as of now.

Founded in 2013 by Prabhu Ram, Priti Shah, Ravi Kiran, Anil Bharadwaj, Krishna Kishore and Maulik Shah, Payswiff (formerly Paynear Solutions) also offers tax-compliance solutions. It has deployed more than 1.5 lakh devices with merchants in the enterprise and small-and-medium business segments.