Fintech Unicorn Slice Receives PPI Licence From RBI

Fintech unicorn Slice has reportedly received prepaid payment instrument (PPI) licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

“Slice has received the PPI licence from RBI and its product has gone live with a few select users as well. With this, they are hoping to accept more users who are looking to come to Slice,” a report by the Economic Times cited a source as saying. 

The fintech startup has received an in-principle approval from the central bank for the PPI licence, subject to audit and net-worth requirements, the report said citing sources.

The sources further informed that Slice is looking to offer minimum know your customer (KYC) PPI accounts to teenage kids, in an attempt to expand its user base and target a new set of prospective customers. It was earlier planning to onboard nearly 20% of its user base but after receiving the PPI licence, it is likely to onboard more customers.

Interestingly, the fintech startup will promote this new user base (of teenagers) to spend up to INR 10K every month, adhering to the RBI’s guidelines that allows small PPI players to load up to INR 10,000 per month and not more than INR 1.2 Lakh within a fiscal year.

The development comes months after the RBI issued a notification in June this year barring non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) from offering credit on PPI to customers (of fintech players).

Prior to the RBI’s notification, fintech players used to partner with registered NBFCs, with PPI licence, and offer credit facility to customers through them.

Set up in 2016 by Rajan Bajaj, the fintech unicorn offers credit cards to young customers, particularly millennials with no credit history.

Back in May, Slice shared plans of offering UPI services to its new and existing customers. During that time, it claimed to have 10 Mn customers that were on its waitlist and sought to onboard the platform. It was also planning to enable Near Field Communication-based (NFC) contactless payments on the app. 

In June, it secured $50 Mn in Series C funding round led by Tiger Global. The round saw participation from Moore Strategic Ventures, Insight Partners and GMO VenturePartners.

Before that, it rolled out an ESOP buyback of INR 65 Cr ($8.6 Mn) in February this year for about 60 former and existing employees. 

In the last few months, Mufin Finance, Cashfree, MSwipe and OmniCard are some fintech companies that have been granted PPI licences by the central bank.

The country’s fintech market is anticipated to become a $1.3 Tn by 2025. Of this, lendingtech is a sub-sector capturing 32% ($616 Bn) by the forecasted period, according to an Inc42 report.