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The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector in India is often referred to as the ‘engine of growth’ which contributes significantly to employment generation, exports, innovation, inclusive growth and the socio-economic development of the country. The entrepreneurial growth and development they contribute are not limited to the urban areas only. Of the 63 million MSMEs, 51 per cent are based in rural India. This increasingly growing sector contributes 30 per cent to the country’s GDP and 48 per cent to exports. Notably, the MSME sector creates around 1.3 million jobs per annum which employs over 120 million people and is undeniably very valuable to the Indian economy.

Over the past year, because of the COVID-19 headwinds, the sector has been valiantly trying to hold its ground. Several reports show that disruptions caused by the pandemic have impacted MSME earnings by 20-50 per cent. Micro and small enterprises have faced the maximum heat, mainly due to the liquidity crunch and drying up of consumer demand. This has impacted around 82 per cent of small businesses. To overcome these challenges, various tech-led companies have come forward to help MSMEs with innovative solutions.

India has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to digital maturity in the small and medium businesses segment; digitisation of SMEs is far more challenging than it seems due to several issues like lack of skills, tech-shyness, access to talent, lack of business-specific technologies among various others. Many fintechs have come forward and are partnering with MSMEs to solve for these challenges. From easy access to banking products, like account creation, credit management, cash flow management to assisted modules that help enterprises walk up the tech maturity curve, the examples are many.

The advantage of working with tech-led new-age platforms is the nimble footedness and flexibility they allow, which enable MSMEs to adopt solutions based on individual tech readiness and life-cycle requirements. Business critical solutions like improving the loan application process, aiding merchants to accept digital payments, seamless repayment options through digital pathways—which are vital to any business today—have been efficiently accomplished because of the MSME-fintech partnerships.

Among the many used cases it has solved for, the advent of technology and greater participation of private financial organisations has helped bridge the gap of credit requirements in this sector. Access to working capital for enterprises with thin credit files have been made possible through the intersection of technology and newer business models offered by fintech organizations.

At present, the MSME credit gap is pegged at around $240 billion (INR 17 lakh crore). By collaborating with digital fintech organizations, which are equipped with technology-enabled systems and algorithms, MSMEs can access capital at a much lower cost. The speed and agility offered by online market places and digital solutions not only aid in better discovery and information assimilation, but also help MSMEs adopt most cost effective solutions based on individual requirement. Digital lenders rely on alternate data acquired through social listening, intuitive tools and predictive algorithms and are able to offer enhanced customisations with greater flexibility suited to the borrowers’ needs, even without a credit history. Timely access to credit is the lifeblood of any business. Enabling MSMEs to gain easy access to credit is thus an important milestone in MSME-Fintech partnership.

Besides easy access to credit, empowering MSMEs with the latest digital payment solutions is another important area where we have seen much progress over the last few years. Digital payments help merchants not only service a wider range of customers, but also bring ease and efficiency to business operations by eliminating cash based transactions, which are expensive and fraught with security challenges. From form agnostic payment solutions which enable merchants to accept payments over easy tap and pay on mobile, to QR codes and payments through biometric authentication, this space has seen incredible innovation over the last few years. In addition, solutions like digitizing customer ledger allowing enterprises to better manage cash flows, along with better vendor management and workforce management tools are helping small and medium businesses to organize themselves better and get maximum output from available resources in these challenging times.

Another important area where technology participation has led to visible growth in the MSME sector is the opening up of newer revenue streams for small and medium businesses on the innovative, tech led platforms offered by fintechs. A local retailer, whether it is a kirana store or a pharmacy, can today augment his income by servicing his local community with basic banking and digital products from his store. In the advent of ecommerce and super markets, this allows small and medium businesses to stay relevant and deflect the challenges that come with the evolving economy. From opening a savings account to instant remittances or cash withdrawal points, technology innovations offered by fintech organizations have helped local retailers go beyond their organic business, and double up as the area’s banker, ensuring not only more business but more loyalty from existing customers. This digital empowerment also helps drive the bigger agenda of financial inclusion in the country.

As MSMEs continue to evolve and we see more participation from tech led platforms to augment this evolution, this space is bound to see more innovation in the coming years. The need of the hour is to continue strengthening the sector with the latest advancements and sector friendly policies, so that we are able to create an enriching atmosphere for entrepreneurial growth and an exciting and efficient MSME ecosystem.

Aims to create a thriving ecosystem for its retail partners by helping them utilize PayNearby’s platform extensively to earn more

In continuation with its brand ethos ‘Zidd Aage Badhne Ki’, PayNearby, India’s leading branchless banking and digital payments network, has launched “PayNearby University” under its trade app to educate and handhold its retail partners towards a better livelihood and a sustainable life for themselves and their families. Available in 10 regional languages for an engaging learning experience, PayNearby University is designed to empower retailers by utilizing the full potential of the platform and help create a thriving ecosystem for the retail community.

PayNearby was built to educate, engage and push a wide range of assisted financial and digital services including basic banking services like cash withdrawal, domestic remittance, goal-based savings and insurance to the last mile. Today, more than 15+ lakh retailers use the PayNearby platform to service close to 15 crore Indians on a wide range of products and services. The success of the model lies not only in the 10+ lakh transactions that it clocks daily or the monthly GTV of ~5500 crores plus, but in the social reach of the platform across 17,500+ PIN codes in the country, helping uplift both the retail community and consumers in those areas, thereby helping access to the Government’s DBT disbursements in an easy manner. The company’s constant commitment has been to empower local retailers who are building the nation ground-up while driving financial inclusion at the last mile, thus creating a digitally forward and financially inclusive India.

Reiterating this commitment is PayNearby University, where retailers can acquire knowledge about the financial product and services the company offers, learn how to use these services, and how to efficiently utilize the platform to earn more. PayNearby University ensures that retailers can upskill themselves and are able to deliver financial products seamlessly to the customers at the last mile. It also trains retailers on the best practices in investments and how to manage their finances better in order to take care of themselves and their families’ future. PayNearby University enables bite-sized learning videos which are easy to consume along with financial and insurance consultation and career guidance, in turn, creating more aware, engaged and empowered retailers.

To enhance the learning experience, PayNearby University is available in 10 regional languages to all retailers who have downloaded the app across the country. With over 250+ videos made available, the initial response has been excellent with over 3,50,000 users visiting the module with 310,000+ daily impressions. To make the learning journey more profound, completion certificates are available which can be downloaded on successful completion of assessments.

Commenting on the development, Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO, PayNearby said, “Retailers are the very core of a business ecosystem and it is important for them to have all the necessary knowledge and skills to make their work easy and enhance customer engagement. As an organization, PayNearby recognizes the mutual relationship that it has with the retailer community and we want to take all possible steps to ensure the sustainable livelihood of the retailers. An important milestone in this direction is PayNearby University. PayNearby University was created with the vision to empower and upskill our retailers not just in trade skills but life skills as well and help them become financially independent and aware Digital Pradhans.

For India to thrive and grow, it is important that the retail community is given the essential support and tools to stay relevant in the fast-evolving economy. We are confident that this free-of-cost module which retailers can consume at their convenience in their own language will be a game-changer and in the long run, will help retailers across the country bridge the digital divide that exists in India. We are extremely delighted that PayNearby University is in sync with our Zidd Aage Badhne Ki.”

⇑ Aims to digitize transactions worth approx. 1000 crore across SHG ecosystem

  Program initiated by the State Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP) with the objective of – One Gram Panchayat One BC Sakhi

  PayNearby received mandate of 9 districts – Badaun, Sitapur, Etah, Ballia, Ghazipur, Behraich, Balrampur, Gonda and Azamgarh

PayNearby, India’s leading branchless banking and digital payments network, announced that it will onboard 10,000 Women BC Sakhis from Self Help Groups to offer banking services to various Gram Panchayats in Uttar Pradesh. The company thus aims to digitize transactions worth ₹1000 crores through the Self Help Group (SHG) ecosystem across Uttar Pradesh, while enabling BC Sakhis to earn additional revenue. The company has entered into a partnership with YES Bank to onboard BC Sakhis across 9 districts in the state.

The business processes and transactions that happen through SHGs are mostly cash-based. As of March 2019, an estimated ₹1,00,000 crores have been transacted within the SHG ecosystem, the bulk of it being in cash. With cash in short supply and digital payments on the rise, there is an urgent need to redesign the processes and transit from a predominantly cash transaction to a digital transaction. To aid this, as part of the Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (UPSRLM) program, the Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP) has decided to appoint one Business Correspondent (BC) – Sakhi (BC-Sakhi) from the members of the SHGs in each of its 58,000 Gram Panchayats. In line with this directive, PayNearby has been allotted the mandate of 9 districts across Uttar Pradesh, viz.  Badaun, Sitapur, Etah, Ballia, Ghazipur, Behraich, Balrampur, Gonda and Azamgarh.

Business Correspondents have played a pivotal role in financial inclusion, especially through the COVID-19 pandemic as they acted as Direct Benefit Transfer collection points and ensured offering uninterrupted banking services to citizens across the country. As banking agents, these women are playing a crucial role in acquainting people with banking services. The project is thus aimed at improving banking access in rural UP and enhancing the household income of these women and empowering them. Post the onboarding, PayNearby will work on upskilling BC Sakhis on the usage of the digital ecosystem while also providing them digital solutions to further the cause of financial inclusion across the state and bring many to the formal banking fold.

Commenting on the development, Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO said, “Our country is going through a digital revolution and it is therefore important that we empower our women to lead this change. It is important our women have access to digital and financial tools that give them better control over their earnings and savings. While the Business Correspondent model ensures low-cost delivery of accessible banking services to every section of the society, the SHG platform has proven to be pivotal in this task, owing to its comprehensive reach and influence at the community level.

The UPSRLM program is an excellent initiative by the government of Uttar Pradesh and PayNearby is extremely honoured to be a facilitator of this program and drive empowerment. With the SHG members having the basic financial literacy and the experience of handling money, they are best suited for the role. They can play a significant part in handholding and getting the community members oriented to digital transactions while driving financial inclusion across the remotest villages and towns in the state.”

PayNearby represents the country’s largest retail merchant network today with more than 15 Crore customers. The company has played a significant role in driving digital financial services within the interiors of the country across 17,500+ PIN codes. It has bolstered easy, low-ticket transactions and created an all-inclusive acceptance framework for a less-cash India.

About PayNearby:

Incepted in April 2016, PayNearby is a fintech company creating technology and distribution network to reach financial/non-financial services to India and Bharat both. PayNearby empowers retail shop owners to offer digital services to local communities, thereby boosting digital financial inclusion. Retailer services are focused on Agent Banking, Digital payments, microSavings, microInsurance, Loan enablement among others.

It was founded by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Subhash Kumar, Yashwant Lodha & Rajesh Jha who bring with them rich experience in the field of banking, payments and other financial sectors. PayNearby is a DIPP-certified FinTech startup, partnering with various financial institutions including YES Bank, RBL Bank, IndusInd Bank, SBM Bank India, Equitas SFB, Ujjivan SFB, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, CC Avenue, Bill Desk, NPCI, FASTag, NBFC and FMCG companies. It is the sole technology provider using Aadhaar Enabled Payment Services (AEPS) and IMPS to YES Bank, making them one of the only two fintech companies hosted by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

For more details, contact:
Siva Subramanian
PayNearby
M: +91 9820848303
E: siva.subramanian@paynearby.in

The 2016 founded PayNearby is doing a monthly transaction of over INR 5500 crores, with around 15 lakh retail stores across 17,500 PIN codes

During the pandemic one thing was conspicuous. Indians have well adapted to digital transactions and in near future don’t plan to return to cash transactions. The reason? Well for starters, it is convenient and fast and keeps a transaction history. Those who were not yet convinced were using digital payment mode regularly by the end of the last year, due to fear of contracting the fear by cash.

Though the government is advocating the concept of Digital India, retail stores or kirana stores have a pivotal role to achieve the complete digitization of India. India retail is an $883 billion market that is mostly dominated by kirana stores. Though there are players in the space digitizing these hyperlocal grocery stores in various ways, Mumbai-based PayNearby is empowering retail shop owners to offer digital services to local communities, thereby boosting digital financial inclusion.

What is PayNearby?

Founded by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Subhash Kumar, Yashwant Lodha & Rajesh Jha in 2016, PayNearby is a DIPP-certified FinTech startup that partners with neighborhood retail stores and enable them with the tools to provide assisted financial and digital commerce services to their local communities.

Anand Kumar Bajaj who is the chief executive officer and managing director of the firm wanted to create user-experience-based products that help Indian retailers to serve their customers better. Bajaj wanted to build a platform that can dole out financial and non-financial services in a matter of seconds, to millions of people by leveraging advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning and create simple and efficient micro experiences for retailers.

“PayNearby aims to empower local kirana stores to evolve into retail powerhouses by blending easy-to-use digital technology with last-mile connectivity. There is a dire need to equip local retailers with the skills to perform a digital transaction. With our technology, we are empowering these small and medium businesses to stay relevant and deflect the challenges that come with the evolving economy,” he added.

From opening a goal-based savings account to instant remittances or cash withdrawal points, PayNearby claims to have helped local retailers go beyond their organic business, and double up.

PayNearby’s Impact

The 2016 founded startup is doing a monthly transaction of over INR 5500 crores, with around 15 lakh retail stores across 17,500 pin codes that offer services such as cash withdrawal, cash deposits, money transfer, savings, insurance, travel, digital payments, access to government benefits, among others.

The startup is also intertwining technologies to add other services, such as saving, lending and insurance, along with providing enterprise solutions to e-commerce companies, OTT platforms, NBFCs and financial institutions to reach the last mile.

“Today, from Muzaffarpur to Maldah, from Raichur to Rajnandgaon, and from the most backward districts of the county to Sela Pass in Tawang at 13, 700 feet, PayNearby has successfully enabled the availability of basic financial services to 15 crore citizens to become India’s largest branchless banking and digital payments network,” Bajaj explained.

As multiple startups have emerged to digitize various areas, Bajaj rightly said that staying competitive is both imperative and extremely challenging.

As per him, the company’s sole focus is on customer value and enabling user-friendliness, dependability and flexibility while solving customer needs allows PayNearby to stay competitive and thrive.

“The most important aspect is that we know how to leverage the data that is collected. Today, more data is being generated than ever before through processing billions of transactions per day, adding scale and efficiency to our business. We are transforming this big data into information, and information into intelligence to create intelligent solutions for both our retail partners and consumers,” he claimed.The startup also underlined its easy-consumable content that educates, engages, and empowers its users.

When asked about the future, Bajaj said that PayNearby aspires to empower the retail community across Tier I, II and rural towns in India.

“There is a large unexplored, underserviced market that needs to be brought up the curve by simplifying high-end technology for the bottom of the pyramid. We will continue to innovate every single day to ensure democratization of digital payments, so that form factor agnostic digital payment is available at every last mile store, and digital payments become as seamless as exchanging cash,” he said.

The startup has plans to foray into international markets such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and other South Asian markets for future expansion.

The company continues to invest in strengthening its executive team with the appointment of CTO, Vivek Viswanathan

PayNearby, India’s leading branchless banking and digital payments network, today announced that Vivek Viswanathan has joined its executive team as the Chief Technology Officer. Vivek brings to the team deep technical experience – with a background in architecting, designing and building enterprise-grade products – as well as a new energy to propel PayNearby into its next phase of growth. He will work closely with the company’s product, data and analytics teams to harness the power of technology to enable seamless delivery of financial services to every Indian and drive the cause of financial inclusion and democratization of digital payments in the country.

With over two decades of rich experience, Vivek brings to PayNearby robust expertise as a leader in the technology and software space across the functional domains of fintech and supply chain. At PayNearby, he aspires to build a world-class tech organization focused on agility, efficiency and transparency through the use of technology, automation, processes and culture. Using the power of data, ML and AI, he seeks to provide our retailers and customers with the most reliable and delightful user experience with fintech products that matter to Bharat.

Vivek comes with a proven track record of having built platforms at scale and a deep understanding of the fintech industry. Prior to PayNearby, Vivek oversaw Blue Yonder as the VP- Product Development to enable digital supply chain and omnichannel commerce fulfillment. He also led the engineering division of Setu – a fintech API platform – as the CTO, building APIs to help integrate financial services into the customers’ products. In his time at Ezetap – a pioneer in the MPoS and Payments tech space, he helmed the expansion of the company as its VP-Engineering. He was also the Co-founder and CEO at Stillwater – a social media startup and is known to have built consistently high performing teams.

Speaking on the appointment, Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO, PayNearby said, “We are thrilled to welcome Vivek to the executive team. Vivek brings a wealth of knowledge to his new role and he will certainly be an invaluable asset to our team as we continue to advance our product architecture and solutions platform. Vivek will solidify our commitment to creating exceptional solutions for enabling financial inclusion and democratization of digital payments at the last mile. As CTO, Vivek will work with PayNearby’s executive team to create, execute and launch new offerings across the company’s product domain that will bring further support to our retail partners and customers and help us build a digitally and financially inclusive Bharat.”

About PayNearby:

Incepted in April 2016, PayNearby is a fintech company creating technology and distribution network to reach financial/non-financial services to India and Bharat both. PayNearby empowers retail shop owners to offer digital services to local communities, thereby boosting digital financial inclusion. Retailer services are focused on Agent Banking, Digital payments, microSavings, microInsurance, Loan enablement among others.

It was founded by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Subhash Kumar, Yashwant Lodha & Rajesh Jha who bring with them rich experience in the field of banking, payments and other financial sectors. PayNearby is a DIPP-certified FinTech startup, partnering with various financial institutions including YES Bank, RBL Bank, IndusInd Bank, SBM Bank India, Equitas SFB, Ujjivan SFB, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, CC Avenue, Bill Desk, NPCI, FASTag, NBFC and FMCG companies. It is the sole technology provider using Aadhaar Enabled Payment Services (AEPS) and IMPS to YES Bank, making them one of the only two fintech companies hosted by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

For more details, contact:
Siva Subramanian
PayNearby
M: +91 9820848303
E: siva.subramanian@paynearby.in

 End-to-end digital processes leading to disbursements within 48 hours
 First-of-its-kind proprietary score card developed to rate potential borrowers basis rich transactional data on PayNearby eco-system
 Loans ranging from ₹25k to ₹1 lakh; and tenures ranging from 6-24 months
 To facilitate access to working capital credit for small businesses
 New-to-credit borrowers are also eligible to avail the loan basis track record with PayNearby

As part of its Shop Owners Benefit Program, PayNearby, India’s leading branchless banking and digital payments network, has tied up with Centrum Microcredit Limited, the micro finance arm of the Centrum Group, to facilitate unsecured business loans to its retail partners. As part of the tie-up, loan requirements will be sourced through PayNearby’s vast network of retailers and will be disbursed by Centrum Microcredit Limited. The solution is aimed at fortifying and driving the business growth of PayNearby’s retail partners, especially in these challenging times where businesses are struggling to stay afloat due to the economic fallout of COVID 19.

The partnership will work towards enhancing the shared goals of the two organizations, which are committed to enabling financial inclusiveness and the economic wellbeing of the retailers. Retailers often need timely and small-ticket working capital loans for short tenures to keep their businesses up and running. More often than not, due to lack of collaterals or being new-to-credit, these retailers predominantly rely on alternative options such as local moneylenders or loan sharks instead of mainstream options such as Banks or Financial Institutions. But, loans from these informal sources come at exorbitantly high interest rates, pushing them further into an inevitable vicious cycle.

This partnership will allow PayNearby to facilitate competitive lending solutions to its retailers who otherwise may not be eligible for formal lending options. PayNearby is determined to ensure that the Digital Pradhans do not face a cash crunch of any kind and continue to offer their services, thus creating a thriving ecosystem for the local community.

The partnership will help Centrum harness PayNearby’s rich data acquired through processing billions of transactions per day, adding scale and efficiency to their lending business. PayNearby has an innovative and robust technology backend platform that reaches out to the deep roots of the country using advanced analytics, AI and machine learning to score thin credit files and create simple and efficient micro lending experiences for its retailers, enabling them to secure loans at the click of a button. The loans disbursed to the merchants will be on a pre-qualified basis. To enable this, PayNearby has developed a proprietary scorecard based on the transaction data of the retailers along with a set of agreed pre-qualifying criteria of Centrum; and a credit rule engine based on which eligible retailers are shortlisted.

The partnership will give Centrum access to a deeply entrenched retailer network, with rich transactional data and hassle-free access to last-mile through PayNearby’s stable tech platform. With big data available at PayNearby and the strength of an on-ground distribution network, Centrum will provide the retailers with the right lending solutions to meet their growth and sustenance needs.

Additionally, this partnership, between Pay Nearby and Centrum Microcredit, has followed a digital-first strategy in its entire product journey. It is currently funding small-ticket, unsecured loans between ₹25,000 to ₹ 1 lakh with tenure ranging from 6 months to 24 months. The turn-around time is 48 hours even for the new-to-credit and the entire life cycle of the loan starting from origination to disbursement is completely digital. Along with the convenience of applying for a loan, the partnership will ensure that retailers build a strong credit history in this journey and at a certain stage become eligible to take bigger and longer duration loans from banks.

Announcing the tie-up, Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO, PayNearby said, “PayNearby as an entity has been championing the cause of financial inclusion in the country. However, the objective of financial inclusion is incomplete until our retailers get access to credit. We have given our retailers access to livelihood, access to insurance and access to savings with various products in the financial services spectrum. The only missing piece was access to credit. In our endeavour to making credit available to our retailers at affordable interest rates, we have partnered with Centrum Microcredit Limited. Along with PayNearby’s substantial data, together with Centrum, we are hopeful of addressing the issue of working capital credit for our retailers through these micro-enterprise loans.

Our Digital Pradhans are our backbone. They have shown great resilience throughout the pandemic by providing uninterrupted service to ensure citizens have access to essential financial resources. In these dire times, we are committed to fortify them in spirit and with financial backing to ensure their businesses function smoothly as ever.”

Speaking on the partnership, Prashant Thakker, Executive Director & CEO, Centrum Microcredit Limited said, “Financial inclusion is a key focus area for us. Our partnership with PayNearby adds to our vision of making a positive, social and economic impact in the lives of retailers by providing unsecured working capital credit to ensure their business functions uninterruptedly. With this initiative, we will be able to bring many small retailers into the mainstream credit fold. This will also help us to diversify our operations geographically and expand our offering in terms of tenure and repayment model of loans. We are excited to call on PayNearby’s rich data and massive retailer network to fulfill the dream of a financially inclusive India.”

Within six weeks of the launch, the company has received over 270 applications on its platform and has disbursed loans worth ₹36 lakhs to more than 60 retailers.

About PayNearby:

Incepted in April 2016, PayNearby is a fintech company creating technology and distribution network to reach financial/non-financial services to India and Bharat both. PayNearby empowers retail shop owners to offer digital services to local communities, thereby boosting digital financial inclusion. Retailer services are focused on Agent Banking, Digital payments, microSavings, microInsurance, Loan enablement among others.

It was founded by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Subhash Kumar, Yashwant Lodha & Rajesh Jha who bring with them rich experience in the field of banking, payments and other financial sectors. PayNearby is a DIPP-certified FinTech startup, partnering with various financial institutions including YES Bank, RBL Bank, IndusInd Bank, SBM Bank India, Equitas SFB, Ujjivan SFB, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, CC Avenue, Bill Desk, NPCI, FASTag, NBFC and FMCG companies. It is the sole technology provider using Aadhaar Enabled Payment Services (AEPS) and IMPS to YES Bank, making them one of the only two fintech companies hosted by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). For more details, please visit www.paynearby.in

About Centrum MicroCredit Limited:

Centrum Microcredit Limited (CML) is a NBFC-MFI regulated by the RBI and part of the diversified financial services Centrum Group. The company provides loans under the joint liability model to low income women entrepreneurs in urban, semi-urban and rural areas. ‘Financial Inclusion’ is the key objective, and it wishes to empower the un-served and under-served women by providing income generation loans and other relevant financial services. It aims to positively impact 3 million low income households by 2025 across India by being their financial services provider of choice. For more details, please visit www.centrummicrocredit.com

For more details, contact:
Siva Subramanian
PayNearby
M: +91 9820848303
E: siva.subramanian@paynearby.in

15,00,000+ small retail outlets to participate actively in vaccination drive

 Strives to facilitate vaccine registrations across 17,500+ PIN codes
 Create awareness and education around the immunization program, and provide a single click, easy to access COWIN registration from within the PayNearby app
 Intends to tackle technology and language barriers among masses in semi-urban and rural India

As India prepares for the third phase of the world’s largest vaccination drive making it available for everyone above 18 years, PayNearby, India’s leading branchless banking and digital payments network, has rolled out plans to leverage its wide distribution network to assist citizens in enrolling for the vaccination program. 15Lakh+ PayNearby retail touch points across 17,500+ PIN codes will be leveraged to create community awareness around the program and assist citizens to overcome tech and language barriers, and seamlessly register themselves on the CoWIN app. This step is in sync with the government’s efforts to immunize the country at an accelerated pace.

The second wave of COVID-19 has gripped the country and in order to overcome this pandemic, everyone needs to get vaccinated at the earliest. The government has strictly prohibited walk-ins at the vaccination centres and has made it mandatory for all in the 18-44 age group to register themselves on the CoWIN portal or the Aarogya Setu app from May 1st, 2021 onwards. However, most of the population, especially across semi-urban and rural India are not tech-savvy enough to register themselves successfully on smartphones or website. Additionally, they are also inhibited by language barriers which can hinder the registration process.

To combat this challenge, PayNearby has introduced a CoWIN registration module within its trade app, that will enable PayNearby Digital Pradhans to seamlessly assist local communities to register for the vaccination process. The single click, easy access to CoWIN app from within the PayNearby app at all retail stores in the country will not only help create momentum for the program, but also solve for citizen’s language and tech barriers. The module will include content that drives home the message around the importance of immunization to eradicate coronavirus and will help create large scale community awareness for the program. With this initiative, PayNearby aims to register 10 crore citizens, especially across semi-urban and rural India.

Digital Pradhans, who have tirelessly served the country with essential financial services during the pandemic, will double up to create vaccination awareness in their local communities, and also handhold them through the registration process. The effort will be to steamline the entire journey, and through pro-booked appointment slots also reduce chaos and crowding at the vaccination centres.
Speaking on the development, Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO, PayNearby said, “As India fights the worst-ever pandemic wave, PayNearby is committed to doing our humble bit to ensure every citizen in the country is vaccinated at the earliest. Flattening the COVID-19 curve eventually rests on judicious vaccination deployment and we are dedicated to accelerating this process through our Digital Pradhan network.

The kirana stores have always been a crucial part of the Indian economy as well as an important hub for community exchanges. They enjoy a very high level of trust and familiarity in their local areas. This local trust will be channelized to create social awareness around the importance of immunization and also assist citizens limited by tech ability and language barriers to seamlessly register for the vaccination program.

Assisted registrations and pre-scheduling of appointments at retail stores will prevent flocking at immunization centres and help people observe adequate social distancing norms which is critical at this juncture to put a check on the virus spreading any further. Our Digital Pradhans have shown great resilience and spirit of selfless service throughout the pandemic and provided uninterrupted service to ensure citizens had access to essential financial resources to fight the deadly virus. I feel humbled that together we can again contribute to ensuring seamless implementation of the immunization drive and create a safer future for everyone.”

 

About PayNearby:
Incepted in April 2016, PayNearby is a fintech company creating technology and distribution network to reach financial/non-financial services to India and Bharat both. PayNearby empowers retail shop owners to offer digital services to local communities, thereby boosting digital financial inclusion. Retailer services are focused on Agent Banking, Digital payments, microSavings, microInsurance, Loan enablement among others.

It was founded by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Subhash Kumar, Yashwant Lodha & Rajesh Jha who bring with them rich experience in the field of banking, payments and other financial sectors. PayNearby is a DIPP-certified FinTech startup, partnering with various financial institutions including YES Bank, RBL Bank, IndusInd Bank, SBM Bank India, Equitas SFB, Ujjivan SFB, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, CC Avenue, Bill Desk, NPCI, FASTag, NBFC and FMCG companies. It is the sole technology provider using Aadhaar Enabled Payment Services (AEPS) and IMPS to YES Bank, making them one of the only two fintech companies hosted by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

For more details, contact:
Siva Subramanian
PayNearby
M: +91 9820848303
E: siva.subramanian@paynearby.in

PayNearby, India’s largest branchless banking network, brings financial inclusion to the masses. Learn how the fintech startup re-invented its support operation, streamlined its WhatsApp usage, and achieved record-level business performance—all during a pandemic.

“Zendesk has support videos that are very good, and whenever we’ve asked for chat support, we’ve received it quickly. That’s not something I can say for many other SaaS companies, frankly.” Yashwant Lodha, Co-founder PayNearby

“Support at Zendesk itself is so wonderfully managed that if I want support regarding any feature in your product, there is a team for that. And there is specialized support during implementation, which helped us to accelerate adding Zendesk to our organization.” Minakshi Taly, Project Manager at PayNearby

       +30%                                                                                      12,000                                                                                                      70%

Efficiency boost                                                                     Tickets per month                                                                                   One-touch tickets

An estimated 120 million Indian citizens migrate from their rural homes to urban areas for jobs—most of them for hourly wages in the services and construction industries that offer the equivalent of about $300 per month. On paydays, they stand in bank lines for hours to remit some of that pay to their families. That waiting time represents hours of lost income.

These are some of the people PayNearby set out to help with its digital financial network.

Broadening access by partnering with trusted community members

“We started off PayNearby in 2016, with the broad idea of bringing financial inclusion to the masses,” said Yashwant Lodha, who co-founded the parent company Nearby Technologies with Rajesh Jha and two other financial services veterans. “Everybody’s been reading about the fintech revolution that’s happening in India and around the world, but most of the solutions, at least in India, are targeted at the top 15 percent of the country. India has a very large population that is neither digitally literate nor has digital money to become equal participants in the fintech revolution.”

Within five years, PayNearby was India’s largest hyperlocal fintech network, active in more than 17,500+ postal code areas across the country and logging 1 million daily transactions. Its customers now include local kiranas (mom and pop retailers), microfinancing and credit agencies, food ordering and delivery services, and businesses in rural areas that are unable to get to the bank during regular hours.

It is the kirana owners—trusted members of their communities—who register their businesses with PayNearby to act as ATMs for their neighbors. “Basically we contracted with small retailers all across these industrial clusters and gave them an app through which they could do money transfer,” Lodha said. “Let’s say I’m a factory worker in one of the corners of Mumbai, Siva runs a retail shop, and my sister Minakshi is in my village, 2,000 kilometers away. I come to Siva’s shop, I give Siva $100, I give him a bank account number, and the transfer happens in about 7 seconds.” The retailers benefit by gaining a small commission for every transaction—as well as additional traffic in their stores.

“The idea is to bring banking out from a trusted four walls into another four walls, which is far nearer to you, but just as trusted as source,” Lodha said. All in all, PayNearby provides about 20 services to its retail stores including cash deposits, withdrawals, bus tickets, rail tickets, mobile recharges, and electricity bill payments. More recently, the company added savings and insurance to its service offerings, “and we are on our way to solve work lending,” Lodha says.

Providing essential financial services, at scale
PayNearby built its success with a dual support model, serving retailers on one hand and its field staff on the other. In all, support comprised six separate teams, each dedicated to a particular mission: retail calls, sales calls, technical issues, finance, onboarding, and enterprise partners. Historically, PayNearby’s support channels primarily were phone and email, with no centralized ticket system.

For the field teams, who serve in a hybrid sales operation role that includes ensuring support for the retailers and suppliers they bring into the PayNearby ecosystem, the channel of choice was WhatsApp. But the teams used several WhatsApp groups, which caused some tickets to be lost and some to be unwittingly picked up by more than one agent at a time. Accountability was nearly impossible. In its hurry to cover all of India with its services, support was the area that suffered most. “It was a nightmare,” Lodha said.

And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country. The Indian government imposed a sudden lockdown, shutting down businesses and transportation systems and mandating its more than 1.3 billion citizens to quarantine at home. Migrant workers lost their sources of income and were unable to travel home to their villages. Within four to five days PayNearby’s money-transfer business fell from $200 million to $15 million per month and its rural cash withdrawal business was halved. No one was buying value-added services such as insurance.

But PayNearby was declared an essential service and allowed to operate, and when the government announced a COVID relief scheme that included financial subsidies for a significant part of the population, “our cash withdrawal business went from $400 million pre-COVID to about $500 million for the first three months when the government was doling out extra subsidies,” Lodha said.

Still, in a time when “our only objective was to conserve cash and cut costs,” said Lodha, “the pandemic also taught us that eventually relationships are what’s going to matter. ” If PayNearby could figure out how to onboard customers via a digital rather than face-to-face process, so could its competitors. It was time to reimagine PayNearby’s customer support operation.

WhatsApp + Zendesk: Supporting field workers with their tool of choice

With the goal to get all of its support teams onto the same platform—and one that supported the field team’s firm attachment to WhatsApp, Lodha began evaluating options.

“I didn’t want to get into a smorgasbord of things—where this will solve this problem, this will solve another problem, I need an add-on or another tool, or I need an integration,” Lodha said. “I needed quick benefits.” So after assessing Freshdesk, Zoho, and Zendesk, Lodha selected Zendesk, partially based on its track record of successful installations around the world, in multiple languages. PayNearby completed 30 percent of its implementation during the proof-of-concept process, which confirmed that Zendesk could be quickly implemented.

In addition to solving accountability challenges, the company needed one place that could take care of all emails, phone calls, and WhatsApp communications the internal teams were dealing with—especially given the company’s 50 percent staff turnover during the pandemic.

“Field staff is a very high-churn business,” said Lodha. “Some of the new people in their onboarding feedback after 30 days said that getting support was like navigating a maze at this organization. ‘If you have an operations problem go to Faith, if you have a finance problem go to Minakshi, if you have an onboarding problem go to Siva’—I realized that if I could solve my internal team queries, I’d have 70 percent of my challenge solved.”

Zendesk’s WhatsApp integration feature also made it possible for Lodha to centralize WhatsApp communications. With the ticketing system in Zendesk, “emails come there, phone messages can get attached there, and WhatsApp can also get attached there. All tickets can come to one desk managed by Yashwant, Siva, and Minakshi,” Lodha said. “There is accountability, there is transparency. People can see which tickets have not been resolved over preset time periods. Things don’t fall through the cracks.”

Using data to improve workflows, lower ticket volumes, and become resilient

Lodha said Minakshi Taly, a PayNearby project manager, has created several triggers, automations, macros, views, and reports. In the tech support team alone, there’s been a 25 percent to 30 percent reduction in time spent simply by routing tickets to the right people.

In addition, the company has begun to get quality data—something it did not have before Zendesk. By analyzing tickets related to the company’s cash collection offering, for example, Lodha’s team realized it had only two problems overall. It took the team a couple of weeks to figure out a solution to one of those problems—cash collection tickets—and just a few days to implement it, according to Lodha. The result was an 80 percent reduction in tickets for that product line.

Those are just some of the benefits garnered during its first few months of the Zendesk implementation. “As a business, I am very proud of the fact that we have been resilient,” said Lodha. “We are just a small five-year-old organization. We survived the pandemic. We did our highest numbers in December 2020, and we surpassed those numbers in January. We went from strength to strength, we have better technology, and we have better support.”