How often have you ever come upon those who’re not cellphone-savvy or can’t read or write — say elderly people, your household help, or your local sabziwala, for that count — whom you’ve entreated to down load a mobile pockets like Paytm, Freecharge, or Mobikwik and that they’ve flatly refused because they locate the registration process, the UX (user interface), and the transaction technique bulky and puzzling? Chances are frequently.
While the government and mobile wallet businesses have been pushing the cause of a digital, cashless, India, the fact of the problem is that digital payments solutions like cell wallets want to evolve in a special path to appeal to the ‘aam aadmi’ (or ‘aurat’) in India — they want to be easy in their usage and UX. Until cell wallet groups parent this one out, they’re possibly to look transactions, which reduced 13% to 269 Mn in March due to the RBI making KYC obligatory for all users, handiest dip further.
The proper news is that someone has realised this trouble and is trying to address it. “I even have visible my mother and many uneducated humans conflict to pay their primary bills. I changed into looking for a tech answer which might allow every body to apprehend and get right of entry to digital bills. This is once I realised that picture-based totally transactions is the following step in digital payments,” says Sreekanth Eragadindla, the 24-yr-antique founding father of Bengaluru-based fintech startup OmegaOn.
OmegaOn, founded in 2016, has give you PhotoClickPay, a fee product that simplifies mobile pockets transactions by using keeping the UX simple and the usage of images to assist drive navigate on its app. The idea is that although a person can’t study and write well or isn’t comfortable the usage of app interfaces, he/she would be able to comprehend the photograph of a bulb for energy, a Vodafone or Airtel icon for mobile bill charge, or a residence for hire and many others, and be capable of navigate and use the app to perform transactions.
This is the way it works: Once you down load the app from Playstore — it’s simply 6.5MB and downloads in a couple of minutes — and open it, it takes you to a Sign In/Sign Up screen in which you have to input your mobile wide variety. The app then authenticates the user and urges you to create a four-digit pin (a security characteristic). You will then land on a display screen with a totally simple UX with minimum text and pics to assist manual you via the functions.
There is GoPay through which you could ‘Add Money’, ‘Send Money’, or ‘Request Money’ marked via images of a wallet and the ‘?’ image. GoBillPay uses photographs inclusive of your mobile provider provider’s icon, a DTH symbol, a datacard, a bulb for electricity, a cylinder for fuel, a landline phone, a house for rent, or even icons for coverage, broadband and water. There is likewise GoServices, which has pictures of a bus, an aeroplane, and a resort for respective bookings. Money may be added like any other ewallet through debit or credit card.
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PhotoClickPay leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and unique IDs like Aadhar and cellular variety to are expecting patron bills and destiny wishes. With ease of use and a easy UX being its USP, OmegaOn objectives to faucet a market this is currently pushed in the direction of simplest cashbacks and other offers on cell wallets and desires to make people recognize the ease of paying bills via its app.
The startup has greater than 50 paying guests or hostel bills. Over 15 schools use PhotoClickPay as a style of fee
As of now, the overall users of the product is ready forty five,000 (the app remains in beta version) The startup has been able to facilitate monthly payments extent of over INR 2 Cr.
In about 3 months, OmegaOn plans to release a new innovation in vendor payments. The merchandising price device is powered by means of IoT and Near Field Communication and allows users to pay through OmegaOn’s App and feature vending machines dispense bloodless beverages, tea, snacks, biscuits and many others.
The Eureka Moment
From concept to startup is mostly a lengthy, experimental adventure, and OmegaOn has had its proportion of experiments. Sreekanth says whilst he commenced working on PhotoClickPay, he idea all people ought to see and apprehend colorings, so he constructed a platform in which customers could ought to faucet on orange to pay power bills and inexperienced to pay DTH bills. “But, I quickly realised this wouldn’t work as bills aren't restricted to payments. In reality, invoice payments are hardly ever 10% of the monthly costs of a median household. So, I figured we’d must make something even easier,” he says.
But the quest to make matters less complicated was not at all that simple. They next constructed the payments charge choice in the shape of snap shots or pix, however this caused another problem. “The consumer had to upload payments to pics for the first time, however our give up person wasn’t cozy with that… he wanted an interface of snap shots so that after he tapped on it, the invoice got paid. So, we constructed a patent-pending generation known as PhotoClickPay,” says Sreekanth.
OmegaOn did its homework earlier than developing the brand new generation. “We recognise that humans take delivery of coins, cheque, cards, and so on as modes of charge. We also understand that humans receive QR scanning and typing as a style of charge. We spoke with more than 1,000 human beings over six months to recognize whether they felt snap shots could be a extra relaxed mode of charge or now not,” Sreekanth says. And the solution, he says, become a convincing sure.
OmegaOn has tied up with Mahanagar Gas, Vodafone, Airtel, and many others. To allow its customers to pay these payments on line. OmegaOn is also operating intently with the Andhra Pradesh government to simplify payment strategies.
With Paytm, Mobikwik and many others, What’s the Need For OmegaOn?
Sreekanth says that notwithstanding leading cell wallets consisting of Paytm, Mobikwik, PhonePe, Tez, Whatsapp, and Freecharge operating effectively inside the market for a few years now, best thirteen% telephone customers perform virtual transactions. He says the reason for this is that people who are uneducated or now not tech savvy discover it hard and cumbersome to check in, type in bill details, input authentication details, and so forth.
He’s questioning in the proper direction, considering India is domestic to a awesome 287 Mn illiterate adults or 37% of the sector’s general uneducated populace, in step with a document through UNESCO. Besides, 70% of India being rural with very little get admission to to electricity, records services and many others.
Sreekanth says, “We expected a technology which might robotically deliver all your payments within the shape of pictures and the platform need to be customized in order that consumers can get pictorial assist for their bills.”
He remembers one in every of their turning factors whilst OmegaOn released a take a look at version of the app in a village and three hundred uneducated humans paid simple payments simultaneously. “That turned into a dream come true. These humans might in no way have made the ones payments via a cellular pockets in the event that they were required to kind within the invoice or card info,” stocks Sreekanth.
Cash — Mobile Wallets’ Biggest Competitor
No matter how big the ability market, it’s never smooth for a startup to make its presence felt, specially in a market saturated with competitors. OmegaOn’s largest undertaking, says Sreekanth, has been taking on deep-pocketed fintech businesses that lure people with cashbacks and other offers, which startups like his can’t have the funds for.
He adds that PhonePe is one the true competitor for all of us looking to make a mark inside the B2C payments. “But we recognize them for being so speedy in imposing matters and, to be sincere, we want this type of opposition to help the enterprise grow,” says Sreekanth.
Also, even as working with SMEs (as OmegaOn is), traders are immune to accepting virtual payments as they’re scared there might be a tedious technique concerned and that they may need to pay large taxes.
But greater than some other competition, cell wallet businesses are trying to parent out ways to ward off their largest competitor — cash. “The truth is that money is the most important competition for each person within the digital payments recreation.” India’s coins-to-GDP ratio is around 12%, some of the highest inside the global.
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The demonetisation, after which the Income Tax branch warned people against coins transactions of beyond INR 2 Lakh, without a doubt went a long way in boosting the chances of digital payment businesses. Besides, government schemes just like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) are also encouraging customers to go online.
The Future Of Digital Payments Startups
With fintech being touted as the brand new, shiny celebrity inside the Indian startup ecosystem, virtual bills companies were seeking to push beforehand notwithstanding having to contend with the cash attitude, changing rules like mandatory KYC compliance for all users, and evolving marketplace demanding situations. The purpose is that they see mild on the stop of the tunnel —the Indian Fintech software program market is poised to touch USD 2.Four Bn via 2020 from the modern USD 1.2 Bn in the Financial Year (FY) 2016. Digital payments in India are on the verge of attaining $1 Tr by using 2023.
According to Inc42 DataLabs, the number of deals inside the fintech phase has been growing significantly seeing that 2014. The sector started out with just 26 offers in 2014 but in 2017, 111 fintech deals were said. The increase keeps as consistent with the Indian Tech Startup Funding Q1 2018 file, fintech witnessed the best investment amongst all sectors.
However, with giants like Paytm and PhonePe stitching up the urban market, startups like OmegaOn may don't have any choice however to goal a populace that desires to make bills without OTPs, passwords, and bill details.
And there is a lot of scope for that, starting proper from our homes. “My biggest turning factor became after I were given my mom, who's uneducated, to use the PhotoClickPay app and pay an electricity bill with the aid of truely locating the bulb image and tapping on it. Then, without me urging her, she determined and tapped the Airtel emblem and paid her cell invoice. In one minute, an uneducated character paid two bills for the first time ever,” wraps up Sreekanth.
