*With over 15 years of entrepreneurial experience, Prabhu is today the
driving force & mentor for Paynear Group of Companies, As Managing Director
& Chief Strategy Officer for Paynear. His vision and passion has
accelerated Paynear to be one of the fastest growing companies in payment
space. *
· *Can you unfold the story behind Paynear?*
Paynear was founded by a group of payment industry professionals with 10+
years of experience in the payments Industry. Before starting Paynear, I
headed EBS (online payment gateway), which got acquired by a French
Conglomerate (Ingenico) in 2013. Using our payment industry expertise and
knowledge, we wanted to build a valuable product in the ‘Card Present
Space’ that is simple to use, affordable and easy to get – especially for
the SME’s. The result is Paynear mPay – a mobile point of sale solution.
Even though cards issuance is increasing rapidly, the mechanism to accept
cards has not yet reached its full potential. As of April’15, there are a
total of 2.12 Crores credit cards and 56.5 crores debit cards issued in the
Indian market. The number of POS machines to handle these figures are just
a mere 11,25,715 leaving a huge gap between the number of cards issued and
the POS terminals deployed.
We believe every small and medium business should be able to accept
payments without having to incur high cost infrastructure. We wanted to
provide an innovative and reliable payment solution that provides a secure
and streamlined customer experience irrespective of the channel. Paynear
mPay is our flagship product, which was launched in November 2014 and is
enabling merchants to accept card payments using their smartphone/tablet.
· *How do you plan to upskill & explain payment solutions term
to the local kirana and medical traders? How do you strategize doing this?*
Thanks to the Indian Govt.’s initiation of financial inclusion and the
launch of schemes such as Jan Dhan Yojana and Digital India; there has been
a decent traction in this space. Indian population has now being equipped
with bank accounts & debit cards, which is a positive thing to all the
merchants. Merchants are now realizing the importance of accepting card
payments for their business set ups and don’t want to restrict themselves
only to cash as the mode of payment.
Our direct sales team is present in all the metro cities and through our
strategic tie ups in tier II, tier III cities are reaching out and
explaining the long term benefits of mPOS to the huge merchant base. This
also helps merchants to organize their businesses in a much better manner
and do it continuously as a process in making them realize all the value
added services they are missing – we are by and large successful. We don’t
do a sale, we educated the merchant and act as a consultant to them.
*“Wanted to build a valuable product in the ‘Card Present Space’”*
· *Currently how many Merchants Paynear has and how do you plan to
increase this figure?*
Paynear ‘mPay’ went live in November 2014 and presently has close to 5000
merchants using mPay on a daily basis. mPay is targeted towards all types
of merchants regardless of their industry and size. Anyone from a retailer
to a kirana & general store, supermarket, grocery store, electronic store,
bakery, food joints, hotels & restaurants and even individual professional
such as doctors, fitness professionals can use mPay. By end of this
financial year we plan to sign up 15000 merchant’s & through our sales
teams along with channel partners and distributors in tier I, II, III
markets we expect to reach this figure.
In the month of Sep 2015 we launched our 2nd solution which is a Value
Added Service called Paynear ‘SPOT’ to our entire existing and new
merchant’s.
· *Geographically speaking which key cities are you targeting?*
Even though weare present in all the metro’s, our prime focus is on tier
II, III markets where there is a huge opportunity and unexplored market
place.
· *Could you tell us about your product SPOT** and how it’s
beneficial?*
The new service is called Paynear ‘SPOT’ – a convenient way to earn
additional income through recharges, bill payments and bookings. SPOT is an
app, which has close to 100+ services available for merchants to make use
of. On every recharge, bill payment and booking they receive a commission.
If you run a kirana/general store, Internet cafe, pharmacy, grocery store
or any other small business you can now generate additional income by
performing recharge & bill payment services to your customers. Recharge
prepaid mobiles, pay postpaid mobile bills, recharge DTH & data cards, pay
insurance policies & utility bills such as electricity, book cab, bus,
train, flight tickets & earn commissions on every transaction.
SPOT can also be used by individuals who are looking to earn from a low
investment & zero risk business opportunity.
*“You have plenty chances to be innovative and chances for you to reinvent
your product”*
· *What metrics have you used in the past to manage your firm’s
technology investments and operations?*
Technology investments more than metrics, they are based on identifying the
bottlenecks in the market, opportunities, size of the potential market and
our ability to cater to them. Operational expenses is purely depending on
sales numbers, given a fact that wehave built a system that can be scaled
without any issues or facing any glitch.
· *How do you ensure innovation in product development?*
Being a company which is in fastest to growing space, you have plenty
chances to be innovative and chances for you to reinvent your product every
3-6 months. We closely work with our sales channel to get market inputs,
and also follow global majors in identifying the new flavors offered which
will have a significant positive impact on our customers.
· *What are the key company milestones for the next 6-12 months
that need to be achieved?*
We’re aiming to have 15000 mPay merchants’ signed up and 20000 SPOT
merchants all across India.
Interaction with Mr. Prabhu Ram, MD & CSO, Paynear unfolding the story
behind mPay – Your Business Companion
*Paynear, mPay, Prabhu, Tech, Card Present Space*
Board Room
Mr.-Prabhu-Ram-Managing-Director-of-Paynear-Solutions-Pvt.-Ltd.JPG
From-L-to-R-Payment-Industry-Experts-Mr.-Maulik-Shah-Executive-Director-Mr.-Krishna-Kishore-Chief-Operations-Officer-Mr.-Prabhu-Ram-MD-Chief-Strategy-Officer-Ms.-Priti-Shah-CEO-Mr.-Ravi-Kiran-Chief-Technology-Of.JPG
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