Paytm to Invest Rs. 600 Crores in QR Code-Based Payment Solution

Mobile payment and e-commerce platform Paytm on Monday announced that it will invest Rs. 600 crores in its QR code-based payment solution to enable digital payments for merchants across India.

Paytm's QR code-based solution is already powering more than five million merchants and is used by consumers to pay at kirana (grocery) stores, tolls, food courts, hospitals, and retail outlets.

"Our zero percent merchant transaction fee coupled with an aggressive merchant acquisition rate, will help us take QR code based payments to every nook and corner of country," said Kiran Vasireddy, Senior Vice President, Paytm, in a statement.

Currently, the Paytm app is available in 10 regional languages, including Hindi, to make digital payments accessible to all.

Within a year of launch of its QR code-based offline payments, it already contributes around 65 percent of overall transactions on its platform, the company said.

Separately, RBI's Deputy Governor R Gandhi on Monday launched BharatQR code in Mumbai, an interoperable and low cost payment acceptance solution, developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), MasterCard, and Visa.

With BharatQR, the consumers will not need to scan different quick response (QR) codes at the same merchant provided by the different payment networks. The merchants will only need to display one QR code at the storefront or through the acquiring bank's mobile application. The interoperable payment acceptance solution works with MasterCard, RuPay, and Visa accounts.

Written with agency inputs

Disclosure: Paytm's parent company One97 is an investor in Gadgets 360