Published
Nov 1, 2017
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Flipkart's digital payments arm PhonePe eyes offline market with new POS device

Published
Nov 1, 2017

Indian ecommerce major Flipkart’s digital payments arm PhonePe is looking to tap the offline market which has around 50 million small shops, with that in mind the company has launched its own point-of-sale (POS) device to gain an upper hand in the country’s digital payments space.
 

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Flipkart had made one of its biggest investments in the digital payments space last month with capital infusion of $500 million (approx Rs 3243 crore) to its digital wallet firm PhonePe to scale up its up technology, reach and offerings
 
“The indigenously-developed POS device will be piloted across Bengaluru. To begin with, the company will distribute 5,000 devices, and then devise a rollout strategy based on the response from the merchants following a test run over the next two to three months,” Sameer Nigam, co-founder and CEO of PhonePe, said in a statement.

“The PhonePe PoS will help accelerate the pace of digital inclusion for millions of local merchants and customers in India. At market launch, we will be giving the device for free to merchants, against a nominal security deposit. It ticks all the boxes for Indian shopkeepers to adopt digital payments rapidly—it is very cheap, easy to use and highly durable,” Nigam added.
 
“It does not require an internet connection and runs on a regular battery. The use of bluetooth as the underlying technology makes the protocol used for the transaction robust and widely compatible. The solution provides several layers of security to ensure safe transactions,” Rahul Chari, co-founder and CTO of PhonePe, said in a statement.
 
According to Global Payments Report 2016 the digital payment sector is set to reach US$63.7 billion by 2020 and Flipkart is currently bullish on this sector investing heavily to develop both online and offline markets for future growth.
 
PhonePe competes with the likes of Amazon Pay, Paytm and Mobikwik in India’s digital market. 

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