Indonesia’s Paytm In The Making – Fintech Startup Ayopop Aims To Revolutionise Payments In The Archipelago

In 2015, Former Product Head at Times Internet Chiragh Kirpalani moved back to Indonesia after being in India for 12 years. Like any other new resident, he got a new telephone connection, health insurance, electricity and water connection, among other things. But when it was time to pay monthly bills, he was overwhelmed – each and every bill had to be paid separately and everything had a different process that needed to be followed.Just like Paytm and other Indian apps in this space, Ayopop allows users to facilitate online payments for mobile postpaid, electricity bill, Internet, DTH, on-demand videos, water bills among others. Users can also add money into their account via credit card, bank transfer, or other payment options, including e-cash and top ups, and can then spend that amount on various services the app offers.While there is no clear information regarding the recurring payment laws in Indonesia, there are many Southeast Asian startups offering this service, currently operational in the archipelago. Startups like MOLPay, PayPal Indonesia, Faspay among others allow users to auto-deduct money from their accounts via a subscription-based model for periodic payments.Talking about the bigger players and impending competition, Chiragh says, “Indonesian payments sphere is a big and emerging field and different startups can focus on various focus areas with different opportunities.” They are focussing on the end-to-end aspect of utility payments.

Coming from a country like India, where the fintech revolution is at a peak and companies like Paytm, Freecharge and Mobikwik have made day-to-day finance-related tasks much easier for a common citizen, Chiragh realised the need for a one-stop solution for utility bill payments, much along the lines of Freecharge or Paytm. So,  he decided to launch something which could come in handy for the Indonesian community – and this is how  Ayopop’s journey started.