Groww Bags RBI Nod To Operate As a Payment Aggregator

In yet another addition to the list of online payment aggregators, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its approval to fintech unicorn Groww’s bill payments platform Groww Pay Services to operate as a payment aggregator (PA).

The startup had received an in-principle authorisation from the central bank for its PA business in January this year. 

A company source told Inc42 that the PA licence is a key development and in line with Groww’s aspirations to become a full fledged financial institution with diverse offerings.

“With the final authorisation from the RBI, we will look into what sort of gaps we can fill in the existing market with our solutions,” the source added. 

With the PA licence, the startup can acquire merchants and deliver digital payment acceptance solutions. The PA framework was first introduced by the central bank in March 2020.

Founded in 2017 by Harsh Jain, Lalit Keshre, Neeraj Singh, and Ishan Bansal, Groww started as an investment tech platform which enabled users to invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and IPOs. However, the startup has been constantly expanding its offerings.

Last year, Groww announced the completion of its acquisition of the mutual fund business of Indiabulls Housing Finance for INR 175.6 Cr, marking its foray into the mutual fund space.

Last week, the startup received the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) nod to launch India’s first Nifty non-cyclical consumer index fund. The platform’s asset management company (AMC) Groww Mutual Fund’s new fund offering (NFO) is expected to go live in the first week of May. 

In July 2023, Grow also introduced Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments feature on its app.

It launched the feature shortly after receiving a third party application provider (TPAP) licence for Groww Pay from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). With Yes Bank as its payment service provider (PSP) bank, the payments app has been focusing on bill payment services like electricity, water bills, loan, and credit card repayments.

It also added lending to its array of services after acquiring an NBFC licence through Groww Creditserv Technologies in late 2022. 

Amid all these, Billionbrains Garage Private Limited, the parent entity of Groww, turned profitable in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23). It reported a net profit of INR 448.7 Cr in FY23 as against a net loss of INR 239 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Operating revenue more than tripled to INR 1,277.8 Cr from INR 351 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

On the other hand, the RBI has been on a spree to make new increments to its PA licence holder list this year. Last month, digital payments solutions provider Innoviti, along with Concerto Software and Systems, received their PA licences. 

They joined the ranks of Amazon Pay, JusPay, Stripe, Tata Payments, and Mswipe in the list of companies which received their PA licences this year. 

Meanwhile, Kunal Shah-led Cred, PayU, Khatabook, among others, have got in-principle authorisation from the central bank to operate as payment aggregators.