Ditching the traditional checkout registers mPOS or mobile point of sale has really transformed the retail payment mechanism of the country. Besides eliminating the queues and lags at a retail store, advent of mPOS has also helped retailers to gather robust data in order to analyse consumer behaviour and build relevant business strategies.
eCommerce has paved the runway for mPOS with many eRetailer have now introduced ‘card-on-delivery’ as a payment mode. Today there are several mPOS solution providers operational in the country and are successfully tapping segments like banking, eCommerce, retail, ticketing, cab services, restaurants etc. Both online and offline firm are actively adopting this trend in order to make India a less cash dependent nation.
Retailer Media hooked up with Manish Patel, CEO & Co-Founder, Mswipe to know more about this GenY payment mode and its potential to capture the complex retail market of the country. He also share his insights on how Mswipe, a mPOS startup is planning to take out the maximum from this nascent market.
Please share your background. Your education and whether entrepreneurship was something you always wanted to do?
Let me tell you that it all started with an aspiration to bring about a change, a disruption in the existing systems and a passion to pursue and drive business.
After completing MBBS from Mumbai University in January 1990, I put my hands in being an entrepreneur with my first business in Milestone Merchandise P Ltd., a company which pioneered introduction of draught beer dispensing systems in India. The operation started in Jan 1991 with monthly sales of Rs 0.09 million. Today the Company’s annual sales are Rs. 1,800 million & the Company distributes a wide range of alcoholic & non-alcoholic beverages across western India.
Enthused by the success of Milestone and given my background in medicine and commerce, I founded TSVi Inc. in 2000 a Company which provided medical claims processing to physicians and small hospitals in the US.
How was the idea of your Start-up conceptualized? What is the need you are addressing in the market?
In January 2009, I started a few wine and beer retail stores in Mumbai. Like any established retailer we wanted to accept card payments from our customers. However, there were number of challenges such as opening of a bank account with the merchant acquiring bank, terminal charges, bank rates, transaction fee, infrastructural requirements which were extremely onerous for a small merchant. Adding to this, the typical neighborhood store model in India of home delivery, conventional landline based POS terminal proved useless.
Addressing this industry challenge, gave birth to the idea of a merchant acquiring business using mobile POS (MPOS) a key technology as there was a need for a better and more cost effective POS solution in the market place for small merchants, who ended up losing a lot of their sales as the customer would not have cash after the entire dealing is completed.
With this thought, Mswipe Technologies Pvt. Ltd was established so we bring to market a mobile phone based card acceptance, payment and settlement solution that could provide seamless and affordable POS solutions directly to every merchant, in any nick and corner of India whether it’s a corporation or partners like insurance agents or home delivery or small kirana stores. We have a solution for all and aspire to focus on this core area of addressing the challenge for Small and medium sized merchants. Our endeavor is to onboard about 1 million merchants by 2020 in India.
Talk to us about your latest technology features and the responses so far?
With Mswipe’s MPOS, we have built a robust platform backed by strong technological attributes and a comprehensive process of adaptation.
On Process:
Usually, the challenge for merchants lies in choosing a POS solution which is wireless, multi-faceted and promises high operational efficiency with the ability to integrate with existing payment infrastructure. Mswipe takes care of all of the above with the biggest benefit of not having to deal with banks.
Mswipe is India’s first bank-independent Mobile POS solution provider that enables merchants to accept any payment option as they only engage with the company. Adding to this, we have a superior process of on-boarding merchants within 2 days, without having to undergo the hassle of numerous Bank led processes which can be tedious at one point
On Technology:
Mswipe’s Webrocket technology ensures the barriers of telecom connectivity are curtailed for a merchant and they can only focus on having a seamless business transaction. Mswipe allows superfast transactions even on 2G networks for the merchants in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities and our MPOS machines accept cards from all card schemes including Visa, MasterCard, RuPay, Amex and Discover.
Not only this, the MPOS device works both on smartphones as well feature mobile phones. Our fully certified and secure terminal, the Wisepad can be paired via Bluetooth with any computing host, mobile phone (iOS, Android, feature phone or Windows phone), PC or tablet. Using an app on the host device, user can process a card transaction. All receipts to the card holder are electronic via SMS and/or email.
Hence, our payment modes have unsurpassed connectivity (2G, Wifi and BT) and enable instant electronic receipts via SMS / email.
What is your Business Model? Please share numbers of founders, Product/services offered and current Business size?
We are educating and acquiring merchants that have traditionally never used a POS terminal as a means to accept payments so our process is rather simple. Currently, SME merchants have very limited customized solution and are also unaddressed by banks at times. Banks look for merchants with a minimum current account balance of INR 2 Lac and take 2 weeks to provide a terminal to the eligible merchants.
Mswipe however, is agnostic to which bank the merchant uses, can provide a terminal to merchants in 2-3 working days and settle funds directly into the bank account of the merchant. Our device installation and onboarding takes 48 hours and the process needs minimum documentation as well.
Who is your target consumer? Could you please share how you have detailed your consumer?
Our target customers are small and medium companies and merchants. However, the ambition is to significantly grow our business, and expand our network to 1 million merchants by 2020.
Currently, India has about 10-12 million SMEs in India, while only about 800,000 have POS terminals as of now. Mswipe intends to fill this gap by bringing in a seemingly simpler mobile driven POS system for small merchants to be self-independent and gain business value.
We aim to create a differentiator vis-à-vis competitors by focusing on acquiring merchants with a robust process offering rather than being seen as just another device manufacturer.
Have you raised any funding so far? What are your plans to use this funding for?
As any successful business, Mswipe has raised a total of 3 rounds of funding. Our last funding of Series C was from Falcon Edge Capital, Meru Capital and Ola that have led funding of about $25 million (about Rs 160 crore). The investment in Mswipe by Ola is the first such made by the Bengaluru-based unicorn start up, and makes strategic sense for the company, given Mswipe's business model.
Prior to this,Mswipe Technologies raised $2 million in January 2013 and another $5 million in December 2013 from Matrix Partners India.
The capital raised, has been utilized in product development, hiring premium talent as well as creating better prospects of our merchant base in terms growth and expansion. Last but not the least innovative focus on new technology for MPOS simplification of the process of the payment ecosystem is an area that we will continue to invest our money and energies on.
What is your team size? What is your office culture like?
Team size - 1,300
What has been your A-ha Moment in the business? (The high point)
One of our merchant survey results has been an A-ha moment for us. MPOS got a wonderful feedback about being a superfast mode of payment transaction, user friendly and has the capability of long lasting battery life compared to any other POS terminals in the market.
We believe this is critical for a small businessman and for us we believe we are working in the right direction.
What has been your biggest challenge so far in scaling -up? How are you addressing it?
Talent is a critical challenge in every industry and we are no different. The ability to get our core sales executive understand and transform our vision to our target audience has been a challenge that we are trying to address. We continue to invest in training our people, engage in merchant surveys to educate them with facts and also mentor them at every stage.
How do you see growth scenario is this business? What are your future scale-up plans?
As mentioned earlier, the ambition is to grow our business and expand our network to one million merchants by 2020. We will continue to invest heavily in people, process and robust technology innovations to ensure we work in sync with the government’s vision of making India truly digital with a changed mindset of being cash-driven to cashless business transactions.
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