Omnichannel Payments App BharatPe Scoops $75 Million in Series C Funding

Indian FinTech startup, BharatPe has received $75 Million in its Series C funding. A New York-headquartered hedge fund Coatue Management led the funding round. Existing investor Palo Alto-based Fintech investor Ribbit Capital also participated.

This funding would enable BharatPe to push for seeking a license approval from the Reserve Bank of India. The Fintech startup is expected to leverage the NBFC to offer lines of credit to its customers.

How does QR Code Technology work in Payments App?

QR Code payments app works on an image recognition technology. It is a mobile proximity application and belongs to the innovative family of smartphone-driven contactless payments. It allows a merchant to receive payments from customers who use smartphone cameras to scan a QR code. The QR code is unique for every merchant.

AI, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Encryption, and Mobility-based data science are expected to discrupt the Payments App market in 2020. 

Today, BharatPe is a leading payment app provider in the fast-growing Indian Fintech market. A powerful alternative to net banking and mobile-based POS, BharatPe has grown to become the go-to alternative for Indian merchants.

BharatPe provides a single-platform app interface for various UPI platforms. This include –

• PayTm
• PhonePe
• Google Pay
• BHIM
• Mobikwik
• Freecharge
• True Caller,
• and hundreds of other UPI apps.

What makes BharatPe Different?

BharatPe delivers customized mobile app payment APIs to enable banks with mobile tracking of transactions. From delivering QR Code Technology to creating unique loyalty programs and reward systems, this B2B payments app provides a deep integration at the bank end — something BharatPe calls it’s their “secret sauce.”

At the time of this announcement, Ashneer Grover, CEO of BharatPe said –

“We have already disbursed Rs 100 crore of term loans to merchants through partner NBFCs and are ready to extend lines of credit to our merchants, for which we need our own NBFC to innovate.” 

BharatPe is backed by Sequoia, BEENEXT and Insight Partners.

Individual backers include big Fintech names in Indian tech scenario:

1. Sanjay Rishi – AMEX
2. Amit Lakhotia– Angel Investor- PayTM, Tokopedia
3. Nitin Gupta -PayU, Ola Money
4. Nipun Mehra – Flipkart, Sequoia,Pine Labs
5. Kunal Shah – Cred, Freecharge
6. Navneet Singh – PepperTap, GramFactory
7. Anshoo Sharma – Lightspeed, MagicPin

Recently, BharatPe had announced a massive workforce expansion to grow its technical footprint in the Fintech market. The company had announced its plans to hire over 75 engineers and project managers in 2020. The fintech company is also the only WhatsApp-driven Customer Contact Center. It uses WhatsApp as a communication platform to notify transaction notifications, OTPs, day-end balances and loan balances.

BharatPe is expecting RBI’s approval on its NBFC application by April 2020.