Paytm Launches NFC Card Soundbox To Integrate QR And Card Payments In One Device

Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications has rolled out an upgraded soundbox device to facilitate payments by tapping a debit or credit card or scanning a QR code.

The NFC (near field communication) card soundbox would accept digital payments through scanning QR codes from a user’s phone as well as tapping the bank cards, the company said.

Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said the Paytm QR card soundbox is an integration of two devices into one, which eases the process of transaction to both the merchant and customers.

This new card box has the feature of sending voice prompts of the transaction progress in 11 local Indian languages and it has been pilot tested with merchants from food business around various cities in the country including Amritsar, Lucknow, Agra, Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai, Bengaluru, Dehradun, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

Sharma also said that this upgraded soundbox device is as affordable as its existing soundbox and available on a monthly rental basis, which starts from INR 150 onwards. The device has the battery capacity of lasting 10 days without having to recharge in between.

However, one of the merchants from Hyderabad, who was a part of the pilot test highlighted the limitation of the device which restricts the card style of payments to tap mode alone. Customers that haven’t activated netbanking will not be able to make payments using their card.

Also, the device currently has the bandwidth of accepting payments of up to INR 5000 per transaction.

At 12:19 PM, shares of Paytm were trading at INR 498.45 apiece on the BSE on Tuesday (July 30), up 1.2% from the previous close.

Earlier in April, the fintech juggernaut launched two new soundboxes to receive UPI and credit card on UPI payments, made completely in India, which were equipped with 4G network connectivity and better sound quality.

Additionally, Paytm said in the webinar that it foresees no impact of lower incentives earmarked by the government in the budget for promoting small ticket digital transactions.

Sharma has confirmed that the company will maintain overall guidance and aims to achieve the projected profit margins in the remaining quarters, while also denying any impact of lower allocation of incentives to promote small ticket digital transactions on his forecast.

“We remain committed to doing the same (achieve a profitable quarter in this fiscal) because we already said without UPI incentive,” he said.

It is pertinent to note that the Centre slashed the budget allocation for incentivising digital payments in the fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25) by over 42% to INR 1,441 Cr.

The allocation for fintech startups and banks for promoting RuPay debit cards and low-value BHIM-UPI P2M (person-to-merchant) transactions stood at INR 2,485 Cr in FY24, as per the revised estimates.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.