Mastercard announces investment in Instamojo to serve MSMEs

Mastercard on Monday said it has made a strategic equity investment in payments and online selling platform Instamojo to provide millions of micro, small and medium enterprises easy-to-use solutions that could help them rapidly digitise.

The investment is expected to strengthen both companies' efforts to support MSMEs, as well as gig economy workers such as small food and beverage operators, electricians, tutors, and more, the two ventures said.

Founded in 2012 by Sampad Swain, Akash Gehani and Aditya Sengupta, Instamojo started as a payments processor for small business — but today, it offers end-to-end solutions for any businesses looking to set up an online shop, or digitise its processes. Its quick onboarding process helps sellers launch without spending too much time on paperwork, and its payments gateway, which is integrated with the online shops, helps them start accepting orders from the get-go.

The platform also offers credit facilities, marketing tools, inventory tracking application, and logistics, among other things, as part of its full-stack digital service.

"We are focussed on the larger picture of providing the small businesses with a platform, which helps them to start, manage and grow their business online. It is no longer restricted to just payment collection, but also about starting their own online store, collecting payments and shipping their products — hence creating an entire ecosystem of conducting business with ease for the small businesses," said Instamojo's CEO and Co-founder, Sampad, in a press statement.

"With players like Mastercard showing confidence in us, it helps us broaden our horizon further," he added.

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"MSMEs and gig workers are an important part of our Indian economy. Mastercard is committed to supporting them with the company’s strategic investment and partnerships to help them unlock the power and potential of digital commerce. Mastercard’s partnership and investment in Instamojo is a step in this direction and will enable millions of small businesses to grow by strengthening their digital footprint and payment acceptance capabilities," Rajeev Kumar, Senior Vice President, Market Development in Mastercard's South Asia region, said.

Mastercard has been working on innovative solutions to help the small businesses sector too, especially over the last couple of years.

In 2020, it committed Rs 250 crore to support SMEs and MSMEs, and launched a host of initiatives such as digital payments awareness, low-cost digital and physical payments acceptance solutions, and easy credit access for small merchants and kirana stores.

The partnership with Instamojo is Mastercard is an extension of its commitment to bring one billion people and 50 million MSMEs into the digital economy by 2025, it said.