Kiwi debuts ‘Credit on UPI’ service by aiming to enable credit service on UPI for 1 million users over the next 18 month
3 min read . Updated: 03 May 2023, 10:56 PM IST
PremiumKiwi, a ground-breaking credit card platform, has announced the introduction of its all-inclusive Credit on UPI customer solution.
Kiwi, a ground-breaking credit card platform, has announced the introduction of its all-inclusive "Credit on UPI" customer solution. As the first app in India to receive certification from the NPCI, Kiwi will enable customers to experience "Credit on UPI" by issuing Rupay Cards in collaboration with banks. Through the launch of its innovative mobile application, which allows users to securely make payments using either a credit card or bank account through their phones, Kiwi hopes to establish one of the largest direct-to-consumer (D2C) models in the credit market.
The company has raised $6 million in pre-seed capital from well-known investors, including Stellaris Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, and a large number of angel investors. Siddharth Mehta, the former CEO of Freecharge, Mohit Bedi, the former head of Axis Bank and PayU, and Anup Agrawal, the former business head of LazyPay, are the co-founders of Kiwi.
Siddharth Mehta, co-founder, Kiwi, said, “UPI has become the most inclusive mode of payment in India, with over 30 crore unique users and 5 crore merchants onboarded on the platform. With the launch of Kiwi app, for the first time in India, users can now leverage the power of a (RuPay) credit card with the convenience and ease of UPI. Our vision is to enable access to credit on UPI for 1 million users over the next 18 months."
Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI said, “In our step towards attaining the goal of ‘Digital Payments for All’, Kiwi will be a game-changer in the Indian credit card industry. With the monthly expenditure on UPI P2M transactions amounting to approximately Rs. 3.2 lakh crore, which is almost 2.5x larger than the monthly credit card spends, Kiwi is set to capitalize on a significant untapped market. Moreover, the number of unique UPI users are more than 100 times the number of existing card users in India, and the acceptance points for 'Credit on UPI' are anticipated to be five times larger than regular credit card acceptance points. Looking at the whitespace that Kiwi is addressing, we’re confident that their model will support plenty of Indian credit card users on a daily basis."
Anup Gupta, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners said, “Kiwi will offer consumers the best of credit cards and UPI i.e. convenience, rewards and flexible repayment experience of credit cards along with unmatched acceptance rail of UPI which is ubiquitous across India. We are excited to partner with Team Kiwi in their mission to accelerate credit card adoption in India."
Ritesh Banglani, Stellaris Venture Partners said, “UPI is the world's second-largest payment network, and is truly world class both in scale and robustness. By enabling credit card usage over UPI, Kiwi will further deepen the consumer value provided by the network. We are thrilled to partner with Kiwi in their quest to revolutionise the Indian credit card market."
After obtaining the card, customers may utilise the "Credit on UPI" transactions feature at both offline and online retailers through linking the card to UPI on the Kiwi app. With a variety of tools including limiting cards, raising limits, and making card payments while rewarding users for each transaction, the Kiwi app will also assist users in managing their cards. By the middle of May, the Kiwi app (available for iOS and Android) is expected to be operational.