Paytm to invest Rs 250 Cr to bolster payment services in Tier 4 and Tier 5 towns
Although the cost of onboarding a merchant in a small town is at least three to four times more, the company is focused on getting more than 60 percent of merchants on-boarded from these Tier 4 and Tier 5 towns.
Indian payments company, Paytm, on Wednesday announced that it will invest Rs 250 crore for the expansion of Paytm QR in Tier 4 and Tier 5 towns this year. With this investment, Paytm expects to reach more than 20 million merchants across India by the end of this fiscal.
Paytm has been aggressively pushing its QR code-based payments to enable all merchants, irrespective of the size of their business, to receive money directly into their bank account.
Speaking on the announcement, Deepak Abbot, Senior Vice-President, Paytm said,
“More than 1.2 crore (12 million) merchants across the country already accept payments through Paytm QR. However, the majority of these are based in larger towns and cities. We are aiming to reach merchants in smallest of towns across India such as Ajmer, Bekgaon, Kurnool, Rohtak, and Latur.”
In November last year, Paytm said it had a base of 9.8 million offline merchants, of which six million accept UPI payments.
Compared to larger cities, the cost of on-boarding a merchant in a small town is at least three to four times more. However, the company is focused on getting more than 60 percent of merchants on-boarded from these Tier 4 and Tier 5 towns.
“In the long run, we want to reach all of the 26-30 million merchants across every nook and corner of the country. We are progressing to enable financial inclusion in the remotest part of our country, and therefore the Paytm QR accepts all digital payment instruments such as UPI, wallets, credit cards, debit cards, and net banking,” added Deepak.
Recently, the company claimed that it had achieved a Gross Transaction Value (GTV) of more than $50 billion, while clocking 5.5 billion transactions in FY19.
This growth, according to Paytm, is attributed to Paytm’s digital payments solutions online and offline for multiple use cases, including retail payments, fees, utility payments, travel booking, entertainment, games, and more.
At the same time, the Noida-headquartered company is aiming to double its growth this year and is looking to cross 12 billion transactions by the end of FY20.
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