Visa, Micromax and TranServ Drive Innovation in Payments; Launch mVisa Through Visa Developer Platform

MUMBAI, India, Nov. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Visa, Micromax and Transerv today announced the launch of mVisa for all Udio mobile app users across the country, which include Micromax smartphone users. The announcement reinforces the strategic collaboration and commitment of the three leading brands to bring mobile based payment solutions, supported by RBL Bank, for the convenience of consumers.

Speaking on the launch, Anish Williams, Co-founder & CEO, TranServ, said "We believe real growth in digital payments would truly happen by offering best in class payments technology & services to the masses across our country and enabling them to digitise their money. The launch of mVisa on Udio mobile app delivers a world class payment experience to the large customer base of Micromax users. Owing to the simplicity of the process, we are confident of it becoming very popular with the cash-centric segments in the society, thus being a significant catalyst towards our mission of a less cash economy."

Driving innovation in payments, this is the first roll-out of mVisa through the Visa Developer Platform, an open platform that provides developers at merchants, financial institutions, technology companies and start-ups with access to some of Visa's most popular payment services and capabilities to create new digital commerce experiences. Visa Developer enables partners to connect to Visa over web services making it considerably easier and enabling them go to market faster than traditional methods.

TR Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, Visa, said, "The opportunity to accelerate the growth of commerce is fundamentally different today. With the launch of Visa Developer Platform, clients and partners now have access to some of Visa's most popular payment capabilities. This enables them to create commerce experiences with Visa technology integrated, enabling greater security, scale and convenience. We are excited to work with Micromax and TranServ to bring mVisa to more consumers across the country and believe this will lead to increased adoption of digital payments."

mVisa is a payment service that allows consumers to use their mobile phones to make cashless purchases, pay bills and send money to friends and family members. Users securely link their Visa debit, credit or prepaid account to the mVisa application and make purchases by scanning an mVisa Quick Response (QR) code at a retailer and initiating a transfer of funds from their account to the retailer's account.

mVisa can be pre-embedded into different types of smartphones thereby greatly increasing consumer reach. Deep integration with devices presents great potential to create new payment experience, that will play a crucial role in shaping the future of digital payments. mVisa eliminates the need to carry cash by providing customers a more convenient and secure way to pay.

The mVisa payment solution will be made available to Micromax smartphone users through the native Udio app within their handsets, making Micromax the only handset provider with a native app facilitating mVisa issuance.

Vikas Jain, Co-Founder, Micromax, added, "The integration of mVisa on Udio is a step further towards simplifying mobile payments. Our collaboration will further leverage the Micromax mobile devices and our presence across a vast consumer base. We believe that single platform integration with multiple disparate services will broaden access and the mobile phone comes at the centre stage of this functionality. Micromax consumers will experience a seamless and delightful digital wallet experience."

For the cash-centric segments, Udio enables customers to digitise their physical cash at nearly 100,000 offline centres across the country in addition to standard online wallet loading options; thus entirely eliminating the need to carry cash.

The launch of mVisa comes close to the heels of launch of Virtual Visa Card linked to the Udio mobile app in partnership with RBL Bank, which has seen tremendous success in the last quarter. Nearly 80 per cent of new Udio users activate the Virtual card functionality monthly. In the last quarter the Virtual Visa card in the Udio app has seen a 75 per cent increase in the monthly payment volume; and an overall increase of 200 percent in the average ticket size.

Transerv would be processing close to a billion-dollars of transaction volume in the current fiscal year. With the introduction of new features, including the Virtual card and mVisa, gaining momentum among all customer segments, Transerv aims for a 300% growth in transaction volume over the previous year.

About Visa

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world's most advanced processing networks -- VisaNet -- that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit usa.visa.com/about-visa, visacorporate.tumblr.com and @VisaNews.

About Micromax Informatics Ltd.

Micromax Informatics Limited is one of the leading consumer electronics company in India and the 10th largest mobile phone player in the world (Counterpoint Research). Over the past 5 years, Micromax has pioneered the democratization of technology for masses by offering affordable innovations through their product offerings and removing barriers for large scale adoption of advanced technologies. Micromax* is currently the largest mobile vendor in India with a market share of 16.6 percent in Q2 of 2014 (Counterpoint Research). The brand's product portfolio embraces more than 60 models today, ranging from feature rich, dual -- SIM phones, 3G Android smartphones, tablets, LED televisions and data cards. The company also has many firsts to its credit when it comes to the mobile handset market including the 30-day battery backup, dual SIM phones, QWERTY keypads, universal remote control mobile phones, first quad-core budget smart phone etc. The company has its operations across Russia and SAARC markets. Micromax* sells more than 3 million Mobility Devices every month, with a presence in more than 560 districts through 1,30,000 retail outlets in India. With presence across India and global presence in Russia and SAARC markets, the Indian brand is reaching out to the global frontier with innovative products that challenge the status quo that Innovation comes with a price.

About TranServ

TranServ is India's leading payments technology company focused on delivering the best payment experiences & products for individuals & business partners. The company offers individual users the Udio Mobile Application and is a preferred choice for P2P transactions, social gifting, splitting bills between friends, recharges and bill payments. TranServ has also partnered with RBL Bank to offer it's customers a linked VISA Card and enable mVisa payments. With a vision to digitize money, Udio enables individuals to convert physical cash to digital at approximately 1,00,000 offline locations across the country and enjoy the rich features available through UDIO. For business partners, Udio offers a stack of API's to seamlessly collect and disburse payments for customers, employees, vendors or suppliers. TranServ has been authorised by RBI to set up and operate semi-closed loop prepaid payment instruments. Investors in TranServ include Nirvana, Faering Capital India Evolving Fund, IDFC SPICE Fund, a domestic venture capital fund managed by IDFC Asset Management Company and Micromax Informatics.

Contacts:

Sheo S. Rai
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Pooja Sriram
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Sheetal Singh
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