Partnering with Karnataka government YuvaPay is going to digitally enable 6000 gram-panchayat in Karnataka that covers 29K villages
Dheeksha M
Have you ever faced a situation with failed mobile payment transaction due to network issues and also no cash in hand? Being in the IT capital of India, Bangalore, I have faced this situation many a time. Demonetization and drive towards digitalization literally pushed everyone to opt for e-payment services. Learning to use mobile payment services became inevitable. Although, the digital drive has come a long way in India still India lags far behind in providing last-mile connectivity, especially in rural areas.
To bridge this digital gap and to provide last-mile connectivity, YuvaPay, the only AI-driven secured offline mobile payment platform enables one to make a payment without an internet connection.
YuvaPay is introducing new features such as Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and neo-banking services in rural Karnataka to connect the unconnected and unbanked.
“UPI is the game-changer here. With UPI one can make transactions without an Internet connection. Both smart and feature phones can do bank-to-bank transactions using our technology,” says Prashant Naik, CEO, and Founder of YuvaPay while talking to News4Children.com.
The neo-banking services enable the rural population to access basic banking services like opening an instant savings account, creating small micro-FD, buying small insurance, and also micro-lending to the vast population. YuvaPay offers banking services to the onboard customers targeting grass-root population.
“Rural population will have Jan Dhan account, but it will be inactive. Recently 410 million Jan Dhan accounts have been created for rural customers and out of the 20% is dormant. Traveling to the bank, uneducated, non-tech-savvy, language barriers are some of the challenges faced by the rural population. So, we are planning to introduce our services to that segment of the population,” added Prashant Naik.
How does it work?
Talking about the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) *99# code, used by mobile payment platforms, that allows users to use banking services without the internet connection, Prashant Naik, says, “It is a tedious and long process and cannot transact large amount. Transaction will fail with any small typing error. This is not the case with YuvaPay. The app is user-friendly and enables large transactions too without any errors.”
“For feature phones, YuvaPay uses interactive voice technology with vernacular languages and smartphones any layman can complete real-time transactions without internet,” he adds.
YuvaPay has tied up with Yes Bank, ICICI Bank and will be partnering with Equitas and IndusInd Bank. They have partnered with the e-governance department in Karnataka to enable the rural population to ease gram panchayat collections.
“YuvaPay initiated a pilot project with a Karnataka state gram Panchayat and we converted 85% of the cash transaction into digital. Now, going ahead partnering with Karnataka government we are going to enable our solution to 6000 gram-panchayat in Karnataka that covers 29K villages,” said Prashanth Naik. “In this way, we are onboarding customers in the last mile.”
YuvaPay target is to digitally enable 2.5 Lakhs gram panchayat, that is 6 lakh villages in India. Beyond Karnataka, to start with YuvaPay is expanding to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Assam.
Recently, YuvaPay raised 5.5 million dollars funding from Indian and USA investors. Earlier, it had raised funding from Germany and USA.
About YuvaPay
YuvaPay, a Karnataka-based startup, started by Prashanth Naik, is the only AI driven secured offline mobile payment platform for the last mile rural population who are Un-Connected and Un-banked.
YuvaPay can be used to make payments with or without an internet connection, supporting both smart and feature phones. Its goal is to enable its users/customers/merchants to send and receive money, anywhere and at any time seamlessly. It is a patent-pending technology.
To know more about YuvaPay startup journey, click here to read the interview with Prashant Naik, CEO of YuvaPay.
