With wireless internet connecting millions of Indian consumers and with a vision to create powerful, market-first digital commerce experiences, Micromax, TranServ and Visa, today announced a strategic partnership to offer the next generation of payments solutions in India. The three leading brands have come together with an aim to offer unique digital solutions specifically designed to meet the varied demands of the mobile-first Indian consumer.
The three parties have signed a MoU covering this shared strategic vision, which will utilize Micromax’s mobile devices, ubiquitous presence and extensive partner ecosystem in the Indian market. It will leverage Visa’s unique digital payments products and TranServ’s fin-tech capabilities to promote indigenous digital payment infrastructure.
Using the proposed payment solutions, Micromax users will be able to use mobile-based Push Payments using mVisa, seamless eCommerce payments on merchant and social media applications, interpersonal payments to personal contacts, and in the future mobile contactless payments in physical locations through NFC (near-field communications).
The payment solutions will soon be available to Micromax smartphone users through the Udio app. Udio is a digital wallet enabled by TranServ to create the best payment experiences for customers, be it for social payments or merchant payments. The wallet allows consumers to shop using a Visa card number linked to the underlying prepaid wallet, wherever Visa is accepted, thereby making the same money available for both for the online and offline payment acceptance.
Commenting on the partnership, Vikas Jain, Co-Founder, Micromax said, “Micromax continues to invest for the convenience of its customers, over the years we have been investing time, effort and monies to create a digital experience for our consumers. We have successfully created the hardware, software and services ecosystem for enabling a seamless digital upgrade for our consumers. Digital payments is clearly an important part of our digital experience and services strategy and our partnership with Visa & TranServ further reinforces our commitment to make commerce easier through tight integration with popular services enabling lifestyle of our consumers. We are looking to provide an all pervasive payments layer to our services ecosystem enabling digitalization of the lifestyles of our consumers. With Visa, that has run similar innovation partnerships in other markets, we are excited to be one of the few partners to offer a unique experience to enable the Indian mobile payment ecosystem. Micromax consumers will henceforth enjoy a seamless and delightful digital experience across lifestyle categories like Hospitality, Travel, Healthcare, Entertainment, Ecommerce, money transfers, etc”
Speaking on the announcement, Anish Williams, Co-founder & CEO, TranServ, said, “At TranServ we aim to build solutions which contribute towards a holistic and secure payments ecosystem. The partnership with Visa and Micromax gives a major boost to that vision and will help develop products that will revolutionize the country’s digital payments landscape.”
This is a unique partnership, as Visa, a global market leader in payments technology, comes together with Micromax, India’s leading smartphone brand and TranServ, a leading financial technology & digital wallets firm, to broaden the access for secure electronic payment services, in line with the Indian Government’s resolve to drive digital payments.
Chris Clark, Group Executive, Asia-Pacific, Visa Inc., said: “Mobile payments are part of the future of payments and their rapid adoption will be instrumental in helping India move towards a cashless society. With India being the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market, we have a significant opportunity to combine the power, reach and security of the Visa network, with the strengths of our partners Micromax and TranServ, to create payment solutions tailored to local market needs.”
