MobiKwik expands offline payments business with RBI nod

By Parth Prabhudesai

One MobiKwik Systems has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India for its Payment Aggregator-Physical (PA-P) licence, strengthening the company’s push into India’s offline merchant payments market.

The approval will allow MobiKwik to further scale its offline payment acceptance infrastructure across merchants through products such as UPI QR codes, Soundbox devices and electronic data capture (EDC) machines. The company currently supports around 4.9 million merchants across its payments network.

MobiKwik said it will focus on expanding across small businesses, oil and gas outlets, and organised retail over the next 18 to 24 months. The FinTech aims to significantly increase deployments of Soundbox and EDC devices as part of its target to achieve 10x growth in its merchant business by FY28.

The company views offline merchant payments as a major long-term growth opportunity, supported by increasing digital payment adoption across India. Unlike consumer payment segments that largely operate on zero merchant discount rate models, offline acquiring offers stronger monetisation opportunities through device rentals, subscriptions and merchant payment services.

MobiKwik also expects the business to create additional opportunities in merchant engagement and credit distribution using transaction data insights.

Commenting on the development, Bipin Preet Singh, Co-Founder, MD and CEO of MobiKwik said, “Offline merchant payments are emerging as one of the strongest growth drivers within India’s digital economy, particularly across under-penetrated markets beyond urban India. This PA-P approval strengthens our ability to scale merchant payments infrastructure across the country and sets us up for 10x growth in merchant business by FY28.”

He added, “We remain focused on building secure, scalable and technology-led solutions that help merchants participate more effectively in India’s growing digital economy.”

The development follows the company’s earlier Payment Aggregator-Online licence secured through its subsidiary Zaakpay, strengthening MobiKwik’s omnichannel merchant payments capabilities across both online and offline commerce.