NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Saturday, December 10, 2016

One month of demonetisation has brought about an unprecedented surge in business volume for startups connecting customers with vendors cashlessly via a mobile wallet or simply a payment gateway.

Since November 8, when the Central government demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, Mumbai-based startup The Mobile Wallet has seen the number of merchant tie-ups double from 30,000 to 60,000 across India. Of this, around 14,500 are in the metropolisi.

The app for another city-based fintech startup, Benow, has been downloaded 1,000 times, and 30 merchants have come on board its pilot project in Powai. Freecharge, owned by Snapdeal, has seen a 12-fold jump in the number of transactions for food orders since November 8.

In the same period, mobile wallet player Paytm added 1.4 crore users while transactions have surged three times. When compared to the last six months, the number of downloads have increased 50 per cent, while transactions have doubled.