FreeCharge to on-board one million merchants in next 12 months

In the light of currency demonetisation, the company has seen a sustained 10X surge in the number of retail merchant sign-ups

Digital payments platform FreeCharge has announced that it has ramped up its acquisition effort and is targeting to on-board one million merchants in the coming 12 months.

An innovative feature that FreeCharge has rolled out nationally is "on the go pin", which allows a user to complete a transaction even there is no internet or phone coverage. This feature has been developed specially for India and FreeCharge has applied for a patent for the same.

In the light of currency demonetisation, FreeCharge has seen a sustained 10X surge in the number of retail merchant sign-ups. In support of the government's initiative, FreeCharge has implemented a zero commission offer for new merchants.

This represents an important and recurring saving for the merchants as credit card companies normally deduct two to four per cent for each payment made through them. Since the announcement of zero commission, FreeCharge is on-boarding a new merchant every 30 seconds.

Food delivery, groceries, daily household payments are the largest part of current transactions. The FreeCharge wallet is also used regularly and extensively by users to conveniently pay for phone recharges and utility payments like electricity, gas, petrol, DTH and lots more.

"FreeCharge is committed to Government of India's vision of Digital India. To make the digital payments more convenient and all pervasive, our teams are executing a slew of initiatives aimed at simplifying and accelerating merchant on-boarding," said Chief Executive Officer FreeCharge, Govind Rajan.

It has also seen new merchants on-boarded from small villages such as Sikar in Rajasthan, Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh, Narnual in Haryana and many more.

It is a welcome sign of digital money being seeded across all demographics and socio-economic strata through FreeCharge.