India’s MoneyOnMobile Enters B2B Payments

India-based mobile payments company MoneyOnMobile is expanding into the B2B payments realm.

The company revealed Thursday (Jan. 26) that it is expanding into this new segment of the market thanks to partnerships with institutions like the Reserve Bank of India, enabling MoneyOnMobile to support larger transaction sizes necessary for corporate payments.

In a statement, MoneyOnMobile CEO and Chairman Harold Montgomery explained why the company is making the move.

“On a recent trip to Kolkata, I met our local agents who expressed a need to have a business-scale transaction service growing their revenue by attracting B2B payments,” he said. “MoneyOnMobile has opened this large new market, which will enable MoneyOnMobile to increase our transaction count and revenue. We are very excited to be moving into B2B payments while maintaining our growth in consumer payments.”

The company also highlighted the size of the B2B payments market, citing McKinsey & Co. research that estimated the space to be worth about $15 billion.

“Our goal is to democratize digital payments by making financial services available to everyone in India — both individuals and small businesses — through our last-mile financial network,” explained the company’s president and COO, Ranjeet Oak, in another statement. “With this new product, we take another step forward to reaching this goal by allowing businesses, which previously would have transacted mainly in cash, to have access to digital transactions, which have become a necessity following the recent demonetization of larger banknotes in Nov. 2016.”

That demonetization sent shockwaves through the Indian market and led some to criticize the government move, one that some say put a snag in B2B payments for companies that tend to pay their suppliers in cash. But as India moves towards a cashless market, demonetization has also fast-tracked adoption of digital payments as innovators look to take advantage of the new demand.