Jadyeen E Mathews
Living in the 21st century, times change and everything keeps evolving such as payment methods. Everything payment-related is being done online, from paying your electricity bill to splitting food bills. Have you ever wondered or faced with a situation with a poor internet connection, cannot process payment, and no cash in hand?
YuvaPay is the only app available in the market, which exclusively focuses to address this problem. It enables to make transactions without an internet connection. In an interview with Prashant Naik, Founder and CEO of YuvaPay, Jadyeen E Mathews, Political Journalism Student from Mount Carmel’s Pre-University College in association with News4Children, learns more about the Start-up journey and about services provided by the company.
What inspired you to start YuvaPay?
I was born and brought up in Brahmavara town, Udupi, Coastal Karnataka, where I didn’t even have access to banking services. At present, I still travel 10km to access the bank. However, with the digitalization of payments, I stopped visiting banks, and most of the transactions are done through mobile phones. But, the main hurdle with digital payments was fluctuating or no internet connection. I always faced this problem and that was the reason that inspired me to start YuvaPay.
So what makes YuvaPay different from other e-pay apps?
If you would look at India, currently half a billion population is using feature phones and not a smartphone, and internet penetration is not more than 30-35 percent, and especially in rural areas seamless internet connection is one of the biggest challenges. That is exactly the opportunity here and in India, it is the need of the hour. This gap is what we are trying to fill. A solution targeting grassroots level population who are not connected and not tapped by the existing e-payment players. Yuvapay’s uniqueness is it works in the non-internet zone, people can do a transaction without the internet, and it supports both smartphones and feature phones and it is a patent-pending technology.
Explain the 4 C’s (vision of the company)?
The 4 C’s Coverage, Convenience, Confidence, and Cost. Coverage – we have a solution it will help last-mile connectivity. We are targeting people who don’t have a bank account and an unconnected population. Cost – we provide an affordable solution. Convenience – there aren’t any middlemen involved and there is no extra purchasing or anything of that sort. It is a very convenient solution. Confidence – it is highly secure and patent-pending technology. Security plays a huge role as it’s public money, not our money and we need to safeguard the customer’s privacy. We follow all the given and needed regulations as it is most important.
Was launching YuvaPay a huge risk?
In my life, I have learned patience and persistence pays. Patience is required with start-ups. We cannot expect a seed to grow into a tree instantly. We had to address the central government regulations and follow all rules and protocols. So, patience is a must. In India, 70% of the population is still living in the rural area only 30% in the urban area and they are enjoying every benefit. If you order something in Bangalore, it’ll be delivered right to your doorstep but if you order something in my hometown, it’s not the same. This also goes with banks, most banks here are located very far. So with this, I saw an opportunity and thought of turning it into a real scale model.
I am the winner of Karnataka State Elevate 2018, I got recognized by the Karnataka ITBT department and also received a grant from them. I’m proud to say that in coastal Karnataka, YuvaPay is a promising start-up. I am also proud to say YuvaPay is from Karnataka. I am targeting the Karnataka population first then I will slowly start to expand to other states in India.
How has business been with the surge of covid?
Covid, was a blessing in disguise, as the majority were forced to go cashless. It was during these covid times we were able to validate our solution with the e-commerce department as social distancing became crucial. So, no matter where you are you’ll still be able to make the payment.
In urban areas most of the transactions are online but that isn’t the case in the rural market. In the rural areas, people have to go to the panchayat office to pay bills, taxes, etc. In the last 6 months, we have grown almost 1000x times. We have almost increased to 20 million dollars monthly transactions. We have around 300 thousand users. We’re also planning to expand outside India through licensing- Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and more into African countries. Right now we are in the top 15 players in the market along with google pay and phone pe.
A certificate course in Political Journalism at Mount Carmel’s Pre-University College was conducted in association with News4Children. This interview was hosted by News4Children as part of the course.
