With many ATMs shutting down in the country, these 3 fintech platforms are helping customers with cash withdrawals

Finding an automated teller machine (ATM) in India is getting tougher day by day as the number of ATMs in the country has gone down in the past few years even when the dependence on cash persists and cash amounts to 80 percent of all transactions. Though transactions through digital modes of payment have increased, the major part of the population is still dependent on cash for the financial transactions due to various factors.  

The drop in the number of ATM machines is expected to continue as the Confederation of ATM Industry (CATMi), which operates the network of ATMs across the nation, has said that it will rather shut down nearly 50 percent ATMs because of high maintenance cost of software and equipment upgrades.

With ATMs shutting down in the country, users’ anxieties to get their hands on cash are allayed by these players that enable easy withdrawals of cash. SMBStory draws a list of these fintech players:

Spice Money

Spice Money is a tech-enabled hyperlocal payments player offering cash-in and cash-out services through its Spice mini ATM, as well as bill payments, airtime recharge, and mPoS services. With a deep presence in Bharat, Spice Money has nearly 85 percent of the cumulative 1,50,000 Customer Service Points (CSPs) in semi-urban and rural India. It has a good footprint in the States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Uttar Pradesh, accounting for 65 percent of India’s population.

Thus, Spice Money, through its latest technology and wide network of Spice Money agents, is bridging the gaps in access to various financial services.

ToneTag

Backed by Amazon, Reliance Capital, Mastercard, and Amansa, ToneTag is a global technology solution provider, harnessing the power of ‘Sound’ for contactless payments. RetailPod is one product of ToneTag that can be converted into mini ATMs and also enables contactless payment acceptance on point-of-sale (POS) terminal/electronic data capture (EDC) machines using sound wave technology. These RetailPODs are also empowering rural India by working as mini ATMs and accepting payments from multiple wallets and banking apps, as well as allowing cash withdrawals.

ToneTag a secured global technology solution provider, which. through sound wave technology, enables payments and proximity customer engagement services on any device, independent of the instrument or infrastructure. It claims to have enhanced the customer experience across different avenues: payments, retail, and mobility.

Oxigen

Oxigen Services India, a payments solutions provider that has launched a mini ATM device, also acts as a mPoS terminal, with OxiShaan. According to the company, the device will allow people in rural areas to withdraw money from their bank accounts without visiting the bank or an ATM.

(We will update this resource piece periodically, so come back to know about more such players.)

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