My Mobile Payments Ltd (MMPL), a mobile payment service provider, today announced the launch of 'Money-on-Mobile' (MOM), an M-Wallet service which permits a mobile phone subscriber to purchase a wide range of goods and services using the mobile phone instead of paying by cash, cheque, debit or credit cards, for the Indian market.
MOM allows the Indian consumer to load their mobile phones with cash of various denominations, minimum being INR 20, at retail touch points and then use this virtual money to top-up any prepaid mobile recharge and DTH recharge, pay postpaid mobile bills, utility bills such as electricity and gas and purchase airline, bus and movie tickets. MOM's service operates independent of the consumer's mobile operator or bank, and hence any mobile subscriber can avail of its services through the SMS or mobile application-based platform.
MOM was launched for the B2B market in India in 2010, and in the year 2011 received RBI's permission to offer the semi-closed m-wallet for the consumer market nationally. With a strong network of 82,000 retailer touch points pan-India and a presence in 300 cities, MOM has successfully boarded 500,000 subscribers and touches a business volume of INR 20 million per day.
Elated about the entry in the consumer market, Mr. Shashank Joshi, Managing Director of Money-on-Mobile expressed, "We are happy to launch our services in one of the fastest growing mobile markets. In a country like India where mobile phones are more widespread than the financial systems, mobile payment is the next big alternative payment method. MOM does all paperless transactions and it is in line with RBI's vision of making 70% of the financial transactions paperless by end of 2012. MOM is committed to ensuring consumers the ability to make safe, convenient and flexible payments thus empowering them to - 'Stop at nothing. Pay for anything'."
MOM recently received a funding of $29.7 million from Calpian, Inc. (CLPI.OB), a Dallas, Texas-based U.S. public company. Speaking at the event, Mr. Harold Montgomery, Chairman and CEO of Calpian, Inc. said, "We wish Money-On-Mobile the best and will extend our support to the team to help them achieve their vision and expansion plans. We believe that MOM is well-positioned to take advantage of the promising mobile payment market in India. Calpian's management team has been associated with the electronic payment processing business for the last twenty-five years in the United States and we are glad to enter the Indian market by partnering with MOM."
MOM is focused on the unbanked market that has no alternate to payments except cash. "With fifty percent of our population having no means to formal banking sources, an innovative customised solution like MOM will boost financial inclusion in India. Moreover, India is pre-dominantly a cash economy and MOM is in the centre of the Indian mobile payment revolution." added Mr. Sundara Rajan, Ex CMD of Indian bank who recently joined the MMPL board as a non-executive director.
With a growing team of 150 employees, MOM is looking to add over 2,00,000 retail touch points to its network by end of the year. MOM is determined to effectively contribute to the RBI's desire of increasing electronic financial transactions in India.