After a year-long pilot spanning most States of the country, followed by a Beta launch and soft launch, Xpay.Life will now make a full-fledged roll-out of its multi-utility bill payment solution, Xpay.

The trademarked and registered solution, which has approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) / Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), is focussed on rural customers.

Speaking to BusinessLine , Rohit Kumar, CEO, Xpay.Life, said: “As per NPCI data, 80 per cent of rural population is not on the digital map. They do not make utility bill payments digitally. That is our focus audience.”

Since it is a fintech industry product and involves financial transactions, it conducted both a Beta launch and soft launch last year. “We have received fantastic response from rural India from day one, without any promotional activity or pre-information given to these villages.

“From day one, we are doing 100 to 200 unique receipts, consumer bill payments through this van. Now, it has gone up to 600 to 700 per day per van,” said Rohit.

Growth story

Rohit explained that earlier companies like Xpay would take work orders from various billers separately. However, NPCI has now brought all billers on a single platform — Bharat Bill Payment System.

“We’re already a utility bill payment solution provider through touchscreen kiosks. Under XIPHIAS Software Technologies (the parent firm of Xpay.life), for the last 15 years, our kiosks have been deployed at multiple locations pan-India, and we’ve been collecting these utility bills, especially electricity bills, through cash, cheque, credit/debit cards,” explained Rohit.

Now, Xpay has taken a few steps forward. It has now added a point-of-sale (PoS) device and a mobile van to its repertoire.

Thus, on one side of the mobile van, the company has deployed the kiosk where the consumer can make the utility bill payment through credit/debit cards or cash.

This cash is then fed into a mini-ATM placed on the other side of the van. Consumers (largely villagers) who want to withdraw cash from this mini-ATM can do so.

“Also, to all those transacting on Xpay, we give them a coupon/coin with which they can buy sanitary napkins and condoms that are dispensed through a vending kiosk at the back of the van. This is part of our CSR activities. All these three make up our unique selling proposition,” explained Rohit. The company’s focus is on rural development — village-level commerce, village-level entrepreneurship, and helping villages (or rural India) go digital, said Rohit.

“While electricity has reached almost all villages, in these small rural households, where there are only a few bulbs, electricity bills (fixed) are of small amounts – ₹30, ₹40. Collecting such small amounts are a challenge for discoms and the government pan-India. This is where our vans come in — with the last mile connectivity, where payments for electricity, besides DTH, water, prepaid/postpaid mobile bills and LPG gas are made,” said Rohit.

Going forward, the company plans to introduce payments for FastTag and school fees, too. This is convenience for the rural customers at their doorsteps.

Not capital-intensive

Rohit said they follow the Ola/Uber model — it does not invest in these vans. It invests only on the intellectual property rights (IPR), which is the software used in the financial engine, and the kiosks. Explaining the modalities of the use of van, Rohit said: “For instance, in Jharkhand, we called these people in the transport business and asked them to deploy our kiosks and other technology into their vans, and they make money through that. But initially, we invested in the pilot. We have invested in four, five vans for the pilot.

“Now, as orders from the government flow in, there will be requirement for more vans — 20, 30 vans. And these 20 to 30 vans will all come from the local people. Local people, local drivers and local operators — that will drive the local economy,” Rohit pointed out.

The company, which is self-funded, has now started looking for fresh funds to grow its business.

Currently, it has a staff strength of 500, a major part of which are in Bengaluru in the form of development, support and service staff.

According to Rohit, the company will turn profitable next year.

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