In PayMate has come up with an innovative app for Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS). This app will be powering the mobile-based fund transfers of three nationalised banks - Syndicate bank, Lakshmi Vilas and South Indian bank in India. If the user has not been able to download the app for any reason, he can still transfer funds using the SMS method. The SMS based solution would enable even users with basic handsets to transfer funds. According to a research done by Informate Mobile Intelligence, PayMate is the fifth most popular mobile payment app in India.
PayMate is the brainchild Ajay Adiseshann, a serial entrepreneur who had earlier founded Coruscant Tec, a mobile content developer and aggregator, and Webresource, the Web applications and design company. Ajay Adiseshann set up the PayMate in May 2006. The funding for the enterprise has come from Venture Capital firms like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sherpalo Ventures and Mayfield Fund. Today PayMate has offices in India, USA, Sri Lanka, Nepal and UAE. The company claims to have entered into partnership with more than 15000 merchants and over 30 banks in India.
It was in November 2010 that the IMPS facility was first launched under the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). The idea was to provide electronic fund transfer service, which customers could conveniently access by using their mobile phones. As of now the adoption rate for IMPS has been quite slow due to various reasons. But PayMate is optimistic that its application, which allows customers to turn their mobile phones into secure payment tools by linking the device to bank accounts, credit cards or pre-paid accounts, will become popular with the masses.
According to the guidelines of Reserve Bank of India, the maximum amount that can be paid through mobile phones is Rs 50,000. But that limit should suffice as must users are expected to use mobile system for small remittances or online purchases only. Less than 20% of urban subscribers are smartphone users, hence the need has been felt for a system that can enable fund transfer through basic phones also. PayMate hopes that its system will place IMPS within the reach of millions.
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