Using a Mobile Wallet has now turned out to be a habit of many. Easy hassle-free payment and no worries about hunting for change every time you purchase something probably is a major benefit of using a mobile wallet. While today many international players are providing mobile wallet services in India, MobiKwik is one of the pioneer Indian mobile wallet companies, that despite much competition has carved a niche for itself.
This write-up is all about the journey and functioning of this successful Indian startup - MobiKwik, which was started with the sole goal of making payments very easy and fun for every Indian.
MobiKwik - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | MobiKwik |
|---|---|
| Headquarter | Gurgaon |
| Sector | Digital Wallet, Fintech |
| Founders | Bipin Preet Singh & Upasana Taku |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Parent Organization | One MobiKwik Systems Private Limited |
| Website | mobikwik.com |
About MobiKwik and How it Works
Mobikwik took down from Play Store
Founders of MobiKwik and team
How was MobiKwik Started
MobiKwik - Business Model and Revenue Model
MobiKwik - Awards
MobiKwik - Funding and Investors
MobiKwik - Technology Stack
MobiKwik - Partnership and Tie-ups
MobiKwik - Competitors
MobiKwik - Growth
Check out the list of 20 Best Fintech Startups in India
About MobiKwik and How it Works
With an aim to make personal wallet redundant, MobiKwik in one of the largest mobile wallet in India. MobiKwik wallet works in a simple way. It allows Indian consumers to store money in a virtual wallet and then use it across channels (mobile, desktop, tab, sms, ivr) to pay utility bills and shop using wallet with registered merchants. For example, as a user you could use it to recharge your mobile via MobiKwik Android/iOS/BB/Windows App, or use it to buy bus tickets on any popular bus booking website or order and pay for pizza on the phone. It is a prepaid financial instrument approved by Reserve Bank of India.
MobiKwik was founded by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku in 2009. The Gurugram-based digital wallet claims to have over 107 million users, 3 million merchants and 20o+ billers on its platform.
MobiKwik is super-safe. Each and every penny stored in your wallet is well accounted for. You can also use the extra in-app security settings available on all mobile platforms MobiKwik is operational on. These are Android, Windows and iOS. All services of MobiKwik are also available via a desktop site and a mobile site. Besides, its simple UI is designed to give users a smooth experience.
MobiKwik ventured out in the offline space and activated mobile payments for brick-and-mortar stores such as Big Bazaar and Domino’s Pizza and many more. It received the coveted Prepaid Payment Instrument license from the Reserve Bank of India on 18 July, 2013. MobiKwik has also received an in-principle approval from the RBI to set up a Bharat Bill Payments Operating Unit (BBPOU), thereby enabling users from across all parts of India, urban and rural, to pay their utility and convenience bills through the MobiKwik wallet.
The initial service provided by MobiKwik was a website with a closed wallet facility, but over the years, MobiKwik extended their service to mobile apps. Today MobiKwik has transformed itself into a full stack fintech company. One can do bank transfers using MobiKwik, and can also take loans. MobiKwik has tie-ups with NBFCs like Bajaj Finance, Aditya Birla, and DMI Finance. As for loans, MobiKwik has many options like an instant 3 minute loan, a credit line and a term loan. It has also tied up with ICICI Lombard for accidental insurance, and also offers several other insurance products like Online fraud protection, dengue insurance, hospital cash etc to name a few.
MobiKwik took down from Google Play Store
Google has removed digital payments app Mobikwik from its Play Store citing a violation of its ads policy. The company’s co-founder and CEO Bipin Preet Singh said in a tweet that it was done because the app had an ad linking to the Aarogya Setu app.
Hey @GoogleIndia @GooglePlay you removed @MobiKwik app from play store because we had a link to Aarogya Setu app. We were asked to do this by regulators ( @RBI ) and understand it’s in public health interest. You have too much power ! Cc @CCI_India @amitabhk87 @PMOIndia @rsprasad pic.twitter.com/ftv5KIZCAy
— Bipin Preet Singh (@BipinSingh) May 28, 2020
Mobikwik had the ad as they were asked to by the regulator Reserve Bank of India and also as it’s in public health interest, Singh said.
Singh said that a week ago Google had warned Mobikwik for promoting Aarogya Setu app on its platform and termed it as deceptive. However, when MobiKwik contacted Google, they said it was a mistake.
Founders of MobiKwik and team
MobiKwik was founded in 2009 by the husband and wife team of Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku with the vision of making mobile payments easier for the average Indian user.
Bipin Preet Singh - Founder and CEO at MobiKwik, Bipin has worn several hats at MobiKwik – from writing Java code, to Customer Support and Marketing. He graduated from IIT Delhi in 2002 with a degree in electrical engineering. After graduation he worked at Intel, Nvidia and Freescale Semiconductors for 7 years before startingup. He has dabbled in advertising as a Partner with Star Auto and in civic advocacy as a volunteer with Janagraaha.
Upasana Taku - Upasana comes with a strong payments background as a senior product manager with PayPal (an eBay company) in Silicon Valley and prior to that with HSBC at San Diego. She graduated with a Bachelors in Engineering from NIT Jalandhar and a Masters in Management Science from Stanford University.
How was MobiKwik Started
Singh started MobiKwik in 2009 when he was tired of his easy going corporate job and was looking to do something new in life. He wanted to create a simple payment platform for prepaid mobile users to recharge their currency. Since recharge is a small ticket size transaction, he created a digital wallet where users could keep the money and recharge whenever they wanted.
He seeded the company with USD $250 thousand of his own money, developed the website and payment options, and rented office space in Dwarka, Delhi. The initial service was a website with a closed wallet facility, but over the years, MobiKwik extended their service to mobile apps.The company launched its android app in 2012.
MobiKwik - Business Model and Revenue Model
The business & revenue models currently comes from thin spreads between deposit rates and investments in government paper below one year, and fee-based incomes by cross-selling insurance and mutual fund products.
MobiKwik - Awards
In 2014, MobiKwik won the mBillionth Award South Asia in the category of Mobile Business, for socially valuable contributions to South Asia's digital infrastructure.
MobiKwik - Funding and Investors
MobiKwik has raised around $118.4 million in funding till date. In the latest round, MobiKwik raised Rs 8.67 crore from NDTV Limited and Trifecta Capital in July 2019. Let's have a look at the details of the funding raised by MobiKwik
| Date | Stage | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| September, 2010 | Seed | $500K | |
| March, 2014 | Series A | $2.5 Million | Sequoia Capital India |
| April, 2015 | Series B | $25 Million | Tree Line Asia, American Express Ventures |
| May, 2016 | Series C | $50 Million | Sequoia Capital India, GMO VenturePartner, MediaTek, Net1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. & Tree Line Asia |
| August, 2017 | Series D | $35.4 Million | Bajaj Finserv Limited |
| December, 2018 | Series E | $3.38 Million) | Sequoia Capital India, GMO VenturePartners & Net1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. |
| January, 2019 | Venture Round | undisclosed | InnoVen Capital |
| March, 2019 | Venture Round | $0.32 Million | Cisco Directors Gaurav Manglik & Tianying Fu |
| July, 2019 | Venture Round | $1.3 Million | NDTV Limited & Trifecta Capital |
MobiKwik - Technology Stack
Java is used on mobikwik's main website, a combination of struts, spring & hibernate and backbone.js at frontend. Mysql,postgres and redis for data storage.django is used to build interfaces for merchants and staff users.
MobiKwik - Partnership and Tie-ups
MobiKwik payment gateway partnered with Uber India in July 2015, which enabled Uber and its drivers to utilize MobiKwik to process debit and credit card payments.
On November 8, 2017, IDFC Bank entered into a strategic partnership with digital payments solution company MobiKwik to launch a co-branded virtual Visa prepaid card for customers of MobiKwik.
In June 2019, MobiKwik announced a partnership with DT One. DT One is global B2B network for mobile top-ups/recharge, rewards and airtime credit services. This partnership will enable MobiKwik to offer mobile recharge in 150+ countries across more than 550 mobile operators.
BookMyShow, Café Coffee Day, Sagar Ratna, Pizza Hut, TastyKhana, JustEat, PVR, eBay, Jabong, Snapdeal, Shopclues, HomeShop18, Naaptol, Pepperfry, Fashionara, FashionAndYou, MakeMyTrip, Ferns N Petals, are just some of the many brands associated with MobiKwik.
The company initially partnered with online merchants to make their wallet available as a payment option on e-commerce sites. Slowly, TV recharge and other utility bill payments were added by MobiKwik.
MobiKwik - Competitors
MobiKwik’s main competitors are Paytm, Freecharge, Google Pay (earlier Tez) and PhonePe. On the wallet front it rubs shoulders with Paytm, which has over 60 million wallet users. However, MobiKwik has a strong focus on the wallet, while Alipay-backed Paytm is following a horizontal approach and has forayed into B2C marketplace.
MobiKwik - Growth
On June 10, 2019, MobiKwik reported a 5 times year-on-year growth to Rs 362 crore in the gross transaction value of the IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) fund transfer business. With 6.7 lakh transactions during May 2019, MobiKwik is targeting Rs 10,000 crore worth of transfers, till the end of FY 2020. As per National Payments Corporation of India, MobiKwik has 26 percent share of the entire IMPS transfer market in India.
In FY19, MobiKwik's revenue stood at Rs 184.6 crore, while it stood at Rs 85.6 crore in FY18.
India's payments market is fragmented with some 60 odd banks for internet banking, multiple levels of authentication on debit and credit cards and a generally complicated electronic payment experience for the consumer. MobiKwik Wallet simplifies all that with a 1-click Payment flow on your phone, tablet or computer which works the same way every time. As a user, you just need to trust MobiKwik with your money and then you can shop on any merchant without disclosing your bank or card details. And of course, get exclusive discounts and offers every time you shop using the wallet. One can also earn money through MobiKwik by referring a friend on the platform. With the company venturing into new verticals, and having acquired a huge user base, MobiKwik is surely here to stay. The company too has exciting plans for the future. As revealed by c0-founder Upashana Taku, MobiKwik is eyeing to launch IPO by 2022.
Link : https://startuptalky.com/mobikwik/
Author :- Shubham Kumar
May 30, 2020 at 01:30PM
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