Vi Business, PayU Join Hands To Offer Digital Payment Solutions To MSMEs

Vodafone Idea’s enterprise arm Vi Business and Prosus-owned digital payments giant PayU India have joined hands to offer customised digital payment solutions to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

Under this partnership, digital solutions, including payment solutions, customised offers engines, buy-now-pay-later options and seamless WhatsApp integration will be offered.

Besides this, products including location tracking, google workspace, personal cloud storage and mobile security solutions will be offered to assist MSMEs in efficiently managing their digital workplace, and business and customer engagements, according to a statement. 

PayU’s CEO Anirban Mukherjee said, “Our partnership with Vi Business is a testament to our commitment to supporting Indian MSMEs in their digital transformation. Together, we are providing a robust suite of business and digital finance solutions designed to increase revenues and boost efficiency, enabling these MSMEs to thrive in today’s competitive market.”

Alongside this, Vi claims to offer an exclusive range of digital tools at special prices for MSMEs under its ReadyForNext programme. These products include location tracking, Google Workspace, personal cloud storage, and mobile security solutions to help MSMEs manage their digital workplace and business interactions efficiently.

This development comes close on the heels of PayU registering a year-on-year surge in revenue in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). Notably, the revenue increment for the years FY23 and FY22 with a 31% and 40% yearly surge surpassed the growth of FY24. 

However, this was lower than the 31% revenue growth in FY23 and over 40% jump in FY22 as the company was unable to onboard new merchants due to its pending payment aggregator application with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

In April, the fintech finally received an in-principle authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payment aggregator (PA). 

Among the recent strategic changes made by PayU, it shut down LazyCard, a prepaid payment instrument backed by a credit line. Owing to this, PayU was able to curb its losses and up overall profitability within the group’s fintech and payments portfolio, Prosus conveyed last year. 

This partnership also comes at the heart of Vodafone taking the brunt of heavy competition from its counterparts like Ambani-led Reliance Jio and Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel in the telecom segment. 

Vi is India’s third-largest telco by subscribers, after Jio and Airtel. As per the data from the telecom regulator, for March 2024 Vi had 219 Mn users against Airtel’s 385 Mn users and Reliance Jio’s 469 Mn users. 

Moreover, all three telecom players recently increased the price of their prepaid and postpaid plans with effect from July 3, 2024.

Several other partnerships on similar lines are needed to bridge India’s digital gap and bolster MSMEs which offer vital contributions to the Indian economy. 

Though the MSME sector employs over 113 Mn people, it is plagued by various complex problems, like unavailability of credit, regulatory issues, low scalability, labour problems, and the absence of standardised policies. 

Despite this, MSMEs accounted for a 43.59% share in overall Indian exports in FY23, contributing over 30% share of the economy’s GDP. If India wants to achieve a $7 Tn economy by 2030, solving the MSME problem is going to be vital.

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