MSwipe targeting 100,000 merchants for prepaid card, PoS terminals

CEO Ketan Patel says efforts on to encourage merchants to adopt PoS machines despite zero MDR benefit of UPI payments

Financial services company MSwipe is targeting to onboard 100,000 merchants on its point-of-sales (PoS) terminals and a newly launched prepaid card. The RuPay prepaid card can be used without being linked to a bank account.

“The card was piloted in September and has already been adopted by 15,000 merchants in tier 2 to tier 6 geographies. When a merchant takes a payment through the MSwipe PoS machine, the money gets credited to the prepaid card which can be used to purchase inventory from retailers and wholesalers,” MSwipe CEO Ketan Patel told Business Standard.

With UPI and QR code payments seeing a rapid expansion at storefronts, Patel said that MSwipe is planning extra benefits and revenue lines for merchants to stay competitive.

“We are also planning an insurance product which merchants can sell via PoS. As the merchant discount rate (MDR) on PoS transactions makes them feel that UPI with zero MDR is better, more revenues can probably convince them otherwise,” said Patel. MSwipe currently has around 600,000 PoS machines deployed pan India.

The company has also tied up with MasterCard and Samhita-Collective Good Foundation for driving the adoption of its PoS machines and prepaid cards. However, MasterCard, which has been placed under a curb by the RBI and cannot issue new credit and debit cards currently, is only a CSR partner.

Under this partnership, Mastercard and Mswipe will join the REVIVE Alliance, a blended finance platform by Samhita-CGF, supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other funders, that supports informal workers and micro-enterprises whose livelihoods have been affected during the pandemic.  

The model is bank-agnostic and offers settlement via prepaid card for merchants without a bank account. Onboarded micro-merchants are embedded into Mswipe's existing ecosystem for product training, client engagement, and contact, ensuring consistent engagement with the micro-merchant, even after the program's conclusion.

Nikhil Sahni, Division President, South Asia, Mastercard, said, "Despite tremendous potential, many small business owners remain disconnected from the vital networks and resources they need to thrive in today’s economy.”