Paytm has announced that it will invest over Rs. 600 crore to enable merchants in the country to start accepting digital payments using QR code based solutions. The company says that beside scaling up manpower and technology, it will also invest in merchant education so that they will be able to transact digitally. The company aims to have over 10 million merchants on its platform by the end of the year, and claims that it is adding close to a million merchants a month.
Kiran Vasireddy, Sr. Vice President of Paytm stated, “We are on a mission to democratize digital payments. Our zero% merchant transaction fee coupled with an aggressive merchant acquisition rate, will help us take QR Code based payments to every nook and corner of this country. We will invest 600 Cr this calendar year, which will be used for scaling up merchant acquisition teams, marketing and cash-backs. We will have over ten million merchants on our platform before Dec’17, which also puts us on the right path to build one of the largest payment networks in the world.”
Last month, Paytm got approval for its Payments Bank from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This will allow the company to move its wallet platform into the new payments bank. Transfer of Paytm wallet money from the wallet to Paytm’s Payments Bank will be free. However, the company will charge a two percent fee when transferring money from the wallet to their bank accounts. Paytm’s Payments Bank is scheduled to go live tomorrow.