Fintech firm Payworld to enter data-based credit services business

Fintech firm Payworld expects to double the gross transaction value on its platform to Rs 22,000 crore in a year on account of foray into new segments like data-based credit services, a senior company official said.

The company claims to have gross transaction value (GTV) of around Rs 11,000 crore at present.

"Our annualized GTV run rate is around Rs 11,000 crore. We expect to double this in the next 12 months to around Rs 22,000 crore," Payworld CEO Amit Tyagi told PTI.

Payworld provides a platform to retailers for services like selling train tickets, Aadhaar-enabled payment services, mutual funds, insurance, FASTags, among others.

The company is now looking to start providing credit based on transaction data of merchants as well as assisted e-commerce for rural areas, Tyagi said.

"We started with payments, money transfer, Aadhaar-enabled payments services etc. When your payments needs are gradually met, the next stage in your financial journey is you want to get some loans, grow your business etc.

"It's a natural evolution that our customers are telling us to take. We have done a few pilots already and are in the process of rolling out it with more partners in the next month," Tyagi said.

The transaction data based credit facility helps customers who do not have a CIBIL score or loan history to avail loans based on their business transactions.

"We will be partnering with a number of non-banking financial companies. I only want RBI regulated entities and who can bridge the trust deficit. We help the partner companies with data. We may be a monetarily poor country, but we are becoming a data rich country," Tyagi added.

He said that while the fintech industry is mostly focussing on the top 5 crore customers, Payworld, with the use of technology, is looking to reach out to those who are not considered profitable enough to target.

"With technology we are now able to target these customers and we are able to give them the same choice of products that let's say you and I enjoy today. Basically we want to become a Bharat-focused neobank," Tyagi said.

The company is also looking to start an assisted e-commerce model for rural areas as another revenue stream.

"We are working with some of the large commerce players. We are running a pilot with one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world on assisted shopping experience. We are expanding this program to kind of bring more and more e-commerce partners onto the platform," Tyagi said.

Under the assisted e-commerce model, a customer in a rural area will be able to place an order on an e-commerce portal to buy the product and pay in cash to the retail merchant partner.