Exclusive interview with Praveen Dhabhai, COO, Payworld

Payworld is an initiative by Sugal & Damani group of companies. It started its operations in the year 2006 and has made its presence known in 720+ districts and 28 states across India. It was started with the idea of bridging the gap between the untouched market segments and the service providers.  Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Praveen Dhabhai, COO, Payworld.

1. Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization, and the services that your company offers.

Payworld is an initiative by the Sugal & Damani group of companies. It started its operations in the year 2006 and has made its presence known in 720+ districts and 28 states across India. It was started with the idea of bridging the gap between the untouched market segments and the service providers.  We at Payworld believe in the business philosophy of "Making Life Simple" and provide every possible opportunity to our retailers and distributors to start their business with minimum investment and maximum return. Under this platform, Payworld offers a plethora of utility services to its consumers in terms of AEPS, Domestic Money Transfer, Mobile, and DTH Recharge, Rail Ticketing, Air Ticketing, Bus Ticketing, and Utility Bill Payments, CMS (Cash Management Service), Digi Gold, Insurance, API etc.  

2. With what mission and objectives, the company was set up? In short, tell us about your journey since the inception of the company? 

With 54 percent of India's population having access to smartphones, people are gradually learning to pay using a QR code or UPI but financial transactions such as booking a ticket, net banking, buying insurance, and investing are still far-fetched dreams, especially for rural India, which is still needs assistance to do such financial transactions. Thus, Payworld's retailer network spread across rural areas of length and breadth of India enables people to have access and assists them in providing all the above financial services through the Payworld platform. Additionally, Payworld is a company of choice for many banks, telcos, insurance, and lending companies to give them access to our large consumer base in an omnichannel format.

Started its operations in the year 2006, at Paywrold, our aim is to make digital financial services available to everyone, everywhere. Since our inception, we believe in making life simple for our retailers and their customers & to build the largest branchless digital banking network that helps create a more progressive society through easy access to financial services.

3. What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors?

We at Payworld, have woken up to focus on penetrating rural India for its holistic and all-round development. It's been found that while urban India continues to reap the benefits of digital transactions such as discounts, cashback, vouchers, and coupon codes, Rural India, which forms nearly 70 percent of the entire population, struggles to open even a bank account. The rural-urban divide continues to present a nationwide challenge. Thus, Payworld has been working towards bridging the divide and establishing last-mile connectivity at multiple touchpoints. Customers' trust and reliability on the platform make us unique. Through Payworld rural India is experiencing financial advantages which have strengthened their immense trust in the brand and its operations.

4. Please brief us about the products/services/solutions you provide to your customers and how do they get value out of it.

Payworld offers various Financial Services through its platforms to rural India. The company's retail outlets assist the rural population in providing financial services like Domestic Money Transfer, Aadhar enabled Payments, Micro ATM services, Micro Insurance and Loans. Similar to the concept of ATMs, Payworld allows the village people to use Aadhar enabled Payment system (AePS) or mATM to withdraw money received as DBT from nearby Payworld retailers.

On Payworld platform, users can start their own business with zero investment, become a digital service provider and gain higher self-value in the neighborhood by providing them essential financial services. there is still a long road ahead for digitization and financial inclusion in such areas.

5. How is your company helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes through the adoption of the company's technology innovations?

Using Payworld's intelligent transaction processing platform, the retailers can initiate various digital and financial transactions like Travel Ticketing, Cash Withdrawals, Money transfers, Insurance etc to their customers and can earn huge margins on each transaction.  Over 3 Lakhs+ transactions are done using this platform every day through our 7 Lakhs+ retail touch points, serving 5 Crore+ consumers across the nation.

6. What is your Leadership Mantra?  

Broader and deeper spread of digital empowerment

7. How do you see the company and the industry in the future ahead?

In recent years, we've seen an increase of activity in fintech — an expansive term applied to technology-driven disruptions in financial services, where financial companies and startups use artificial intelligence (AI) and another tech in their day-to-day processes. I believe the future will see more innovation in the Fintech industry. As consumers increasingly turn to alternative, digital methods of managing their finances, tech-savvy startups and traditional financial institutions alike are diving into the fintech industry.

We believe that we are a cog in this Fintech wheel and we are adding more services and partnering with B2B e-commerce platforms to enable retailers to source products directly without any need for visiting wholesalers or distributors.

Our goal is to add more services and partner with B2B e-commerce platforms to enable retailers to source products directly without any need for visiting wholesalers or distributors. Furthermore, we want to make 1 Million Digital Sewa Kendra (Active Retail Touchpoints) pan India providing essential financial services in several regions of the country.