ePaisa looks to partner with New India Co-operative banks, retail chains

Startup ePaisa has entered into a partnership with New India Co-operative Bank, offering its mobile point-of-sale application to the lender's merchant customers.

The tie-up will allow the bank's merchant customers to accept cash or card payments using the built-in billing application on their smartphones or tablets, after registering with ePaisa. The company, which was incubated by IdeaTree in the early stage of its venture, plans to raise Rs 42 crore in its first round of fundraising to scale up the venture and expand by partnering with other banks, retail stores and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) to reach out to a wider base of target merchants.

"Small and medium-sized banks often lose out on their current account customers, who are lured by big banks with offers of card acceptance facilities. This facility requires investment in supporting infrastructure, which smaller banks can ill afford," said Siddharth Arora, co-founder and CEO of ePaisa, adding that the multilingual application with 32 languages on board allows merchants to choose their language of preference.