New Delhi/ Mumbai, 10 April, 2016 – 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.”
About Visa
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world’s most advanced processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit corporate.visa.com
About Micromax Informatics Ltd.
Micromax Informatics Limited is one of the leading consumer electronics company in India and the 10th largest mobile phone player in the world (Counterpoint Research). Over the past 5 years, Micromax has pioneered the democratization of technology for masses by offering affordable innovations through their product offerings and removing barriers for large scale adoption of advanced technologies. Micromax* is currently the largest mobile vendor in India with a market share of 16.6 percent in Q2 of 2014 (Counterpoint Research). The brand’s product portfolio embraces more than 60 models today, ranging from feature rich, dual – SIM phones, 3G Android smartphones, tablets, LED televisions and data cards. The company also has many firsts to its credit when it comes to the mobile handset market including the 30-day battery backup, dual SIM phones, QWERTY keypads, universal remote control mobile phones, first quad-core budget smart phone etc. The company has its operations across Russia and SAARC markets. Micromax* sells more than 3 million Mobility Devices every month, with a presence in more than 560 districts through 1, 30,000 retail outlets in India. With presence across India and global presence in Russia and SAARC markets, the Indian brand is reaching out to the global frontier with innovative products that challenge the status quo that Innovation comes with a price
About TranServ
TranServ Private Limited is a leading digital payments company established with a vision to create the best payment experiences – for individual users and our partner merchants – in a highly secure environment. TranServ offers the UDIO wallet to individuals which is a platform of choice for P2P transactions and enables business partners to deliver a delightful consumer experience by utilizing our cutting-edge technology. The company’s extensive product suite allows businesses of varying sizes and scale to collect and disburse payments in an efficient manner. For more information, visit www.udioforyou.com / transerv.co.in