PhonePe, the unicorn of the fintech industry, has launched its payment gateway in an effort to reach out to bigger offline and online retailers, including small and medium-sized companies.
With this introduction, the fintech company’s reliance on third-party gateways for in-app payments is no longer necessary. With its most recent release, the Walmart-backed digital payments app will compete with companies like Paytm and Pine Labs, who are well-known in the offline market, as well as Razorpay and Cashfree Payments, which operate online. In reality, Paytm, a rival payment app, had introduced its own gateway in 2012.
The omnichannel strategy is being considered by other participants in the space, and they are looking to provide gateway services to both online and offline shops. Pine Labs, an industry pioneer in point-of-sale payments, has introduced its own online payment gateway called Plural, and Mswipe will follow suit soon. However, in order to enter the physical market, online gateway operator Razorpay purchased Ezetap last year.
With a market share of more than 50% by value, PhonePe is already the market leader in UPI. PhonePe launched its payment gateway business to offer consumers and merchants alike the best-in-class payment experience because of the company’s capacity for handling large-scale transactions and the high level of customer trust in the platform, according to the company’s statement. The business, however, could not provide precise data regarding traction or targets.
