Infibeam Avenues gets final nod from RBI to operate as payment aggregator

Digital payments facilitator Infibeam Avenues has received the final authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payment aggregator under the Payment Settlements Act, 2007, for its payment gateway brand CCAvenue.

"We have successfully captured significant market share in the payment gateway and the bill payments space, and we are now poised for even greater expansion in the coming months and will now gear up for an accelerated market share growth,” said Vishal Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director of Infibeam Avenues Ltd.

The RBI had introduced the payment aggregator framework in March 2020, which mandated that payment gateways need to obtain an aggregator licence to acquire merchants and offer digital payment acceptance solutions.

Payment aggregators enable ecommerce websites, mobile apps, and merchants to accept various payment instruments from customers for their transactions without the need for merchants to create their own payment interface.

CCAvenue app helps merchants use their Android phone as a payment acceptance terminal without the need for a point-of-sale machine. There are over 10 million merchants on Infibeam’s platform; in H1 of FY24 the platform onboarded half a million merchants, said the company.

Infibeam Avenues posted a gross revenue of Rs 912 crore for the third quarter of FY24, clocking a 2.2X year-over-year (YoY) growth over Rs 414 crore recorded in Q3 FY23. This marked the company's highest-ever quarterly consolidated gross revenue, said the company. Its net profit grew 64% YoY to Rs 41 crore in the October-December quarter from Rs 25 crore earned in the year-ago period.

The company also posted an EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) of Rs 69 crore—up from Rs 47.5 crore in Q3 FY23, reflecting strong operational efficiency.

"This notable third-quarter growth was attributed to the festive season and the increasing adoption of the CCAvenue payment solution by merchants," Infibeam said in a statement.

"The increased transactions (total payment volume) were predominantly driven by growth in the hospitality, travel, telecom, airline travel, and hotel sectors," it noted.