MobiKwik and StoreKing bring financial inclusion to rural India

MobiKwik, India's largest independent mobile payments network, today announced a new partnership with StoreKing that expands MobiKwik's cash-less and card-less payment management to 10,000 retail stores in 600 small towns and 5,000 villages across the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Goa.

This partnership will benefit 10 million rural users, who will now be able to make payments via the MobiKwik mobile wallet in these 10,000 retail stores as well as make payments for online purchases on the StoreKing e-commerce platform.

StoreKing is an assisted e-commerce platform that partners with a network of Kirana stores located in rural areas to establish a tablet-based wireless internet connected point-of-sale terminal. This partnership aims to bring the convenience and success of e-commerce model to rural India and is significant in enabling financial inclusion.

The 10,000 retail stores will be trained to help rural users download the MobiKwik mobile app and add cash to it to buy goods. Tablet-based terminals will provide access to StoreKing's e-commerce platform.

MobiKwik's mobile payment solution will allow instant one-tap payments for orders placed on the terminals as well as for in-store purchases.

"As we continue to work in collaboration with retailers and merchants of all sizes, MobiKwik's mobile application will increasingly be seen as a destination for users to browse local businesses, order ahead, and transact at point-of-sale," said Bipin Preet Singh, Founder CEO, MobiKwik, while announcing the collaboration.

"With this partnership, we are extending the reach of MobiKwik wallet to rural India and breaking barriers presented by traditional payment methods. Rural Indians no longer have to wait for banks to reach them, to open an account or to transact. They just need to download our app to kick-start their digital payments journey," he added.

MobiKwik and StoreKing will also provide free Wi-Fi connections at the stores to enable users to download the MobiKwik app on their phone. Besides paying for goods at the store, users can also use the wallet for mobile recharges, phone bill payments, DTH recharges and money transfer to other MobiKwik users.

Sridhar Gundaiah, CEO, StoreKing, said rural India is the least priority area for any digital business because 90 percent of rural consumers do not have a bank account and rely only on cash payments.

"StoreKing and MobiKwik are now bringing digital disruption to rural India. Across south India, using the 10,000+ digital touch points of StoreKing, more than 10 million rural citizens now have the opportunity to open a MobiKwik wallet and start making digital payments for all their purchases. The digital money experience is now just a tap away for Rural India," he added.

A recent report by PwC1 states that the number of rural e-commerce Internet users is growing by 58 percent annually, fuelled by the increase in the number of smartphones and 3G subscriptions. MobiKwik and StoreKing's partnership is a significant step in driving the inclusion of rural Indian users into the e-commerce fold.

MobiKwik is India's largest independent mobile payments network connecting 17 million users with 50,000 retailers. MobiKwik enables users to discover retailers (brick-and-mortar stores, e-com websites, m-com apps, billers, telcos) and then start paying them with 1-tap.

MobiKwik is powering payments for Uber, Meru Cabs, Big Bazaar, WHSmith India, Cafe Coffee Day, PVR, BookMyShow, Domino's, Pizza Hut, Star Sports, GoDaddy, eBay, ShopClues, Myntra, Jabong, Pepperfry, HomeShop18, MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip and Yatra.

With MobiKwik, users load money into the wallet once using cash, loyalty points, debit card, credit card, and netbanking to make secure 1-tap payments for purchases. Most MobiKwik users make 10 purchases every month using their wallet balance across diverse use cases such as recharge, bills, food, travel and cabs, shopping, entertainment, etc. Users also transfer money to wallets and bank accounts of friends and family using MobiKwik. Users today enjoy MobiKwik wallet services on Android, Windows and iOS mobile applications and on MobiKwik.com.

MobiKwik aspires to be the largest source of digital transactions in India. The company's goal is to power $5B in payments between 150M users and 500,000 retailers. MobiKwik has also applied to RBI for a Payments Bank license in February 2015.

StoreKing, a Bengaluru-based e-commerce startup, uses vernacular languages to introduce millions of villagers to the world of online shopping. It was founded by Sridhar Gundaiah (Co-founder and CEO) and Govardhan Krishnappa (Co-Founder and VP of Operations). StoreKing has 10,000 kiosks across south India and currently delivers over 150,000 orders every month.