Flipkart’s Super.money Teams Up With Kotak Bank To Make India’s Free Upi Payments Pay

India’s free integer payments gyration has upended really money moves — but not really fintechs make it. Now, Flipkart’s fintech limb Super.money is partnering pinch 1 of India’s apical commercialized banks, Kotak Mahindra Bank, to alteration that, bundling UPI payments, savings, and secured in installments into a azygous relationship aimed astatine turning usage into profit.

The business intends to rumor astir 2 cardinal secured in installments cards successful nan adjacent 12 months — astir 60 percent to first-time borrowers — and 5 cardinal wrong 2 years. Super.money, which already serves 10 cardinal progressive users, expects nan Kotak confederation to lend astir 10 percent of its gross adjacent twelvemonth arsenic it useful toward profitability by 2026, main executive Prakash Sikaria said successful an interview.

India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), backed by nan Indian government, has made instant slope transfers free and ubiquitous, processing more than 19 cardinal transactions a month. That success, though, has near small room for fintechs to profit, since regulators, including nan Indian finance ministry, do not let nan merchant fees that typically money rewards and in installments programs. Super.money’s stake — utilizing a secured paper and savings relationship to reintroduce incentives — offers a template for building viable business models atop no-fee costs systems.

“We do UPI not to lick nan axenic costs usage case,” Sikaria told TechCrunch. “We do UPI to build an absorbing cross-financial services play wherever we are acquiring and retaining customers pinch nan UPI.”

Launched successful June 2024 arsenic Walmart-owned Flipkart’s latest fintech task after spinning disconnected PhonePe successful 2023, Super.money is already generating astir $3 cardinal successful monthly revenue, pinch an annualized tally complaint of astir $36 million, nan executive said.

The fintech app has emerged arsenic 1 of India’s apical 5 UPI platforms successful caller months, processing much than 200 cardinal transactions a period for 4 consecutive months done August, per nan National Payments Corporation of India, nan national assemblage that manages nan system.

Around 80% of Super.money’s gross comes from individual loans, 10% from in installments cards, and nan remaining 10% from costs products specified arsenic measure payments and recharges. The fintech says it retains astir 85% of users, pinch 60–70% of its transactions coming from customers nether 30.

Sikaria noted that Super.money’s business exemplary rests connected 2 monetization engines. “The first is nan financial-services motor — individual loans, cards, deposits, and akin products — and nan 2nd is commerce,” he said. “Our thought is to bring a Klarna-style’ pay-in-three’ exemplary connected apical of commerce, creating a financial overlay that lets customers bargain now and salary later wrong nan Super.money ecosystem.”

The business pinch Kotak Mahindra Bank, India’s fourth-largest lender by marketplace capitalization, gives Super.money entree to a large, regulated banking infrastructure. It follows an earlier tie-up pinch Utkarsh Small Finance Bank to specifically connection secured cards done its platform, marking nan fintech’s move into mainstream unit banking.

The collaboration introduces what nan companies telephone a “3 successful 1 Super Account,” combining a savings account, UPI payments, and a fixed-deposit-backed secured in installments paper aimed astatine expanding in installments entree for first-time borrowers.

Image Credits:Super.money

To unfastened a 3-in-1 Super Account, users request to make a fixed deposit of astatine slightest ₹1,000 (about $11). The relationship earns liking connected nan deposit and offers a cashback connected each transaction. It besides includes a UPI-on-credit characteristic — a in installments statement backed by nan deposit that does not require immoderate income proof.

Sikaria told TechCrunch that secured cards were chosen arsenic nan anchor merchandise because they fresh wrong India’s zero-fee UPI strategy while still allowing nan rewards and cashbacks that nan level was ne'er designed to support.

“Our attraction is to bring successful users who person a higher propensity to prosecute pinch our products,” he said. “UPI happens to beryllium nan halfway engagement and acquisition hook, but for group who don’t want to prosecute successful financial services aliases different products that we launched, we do not want to service them from a UPI aliases costs perspective.”

The business pinch Kotak Mahindra Bank comes soon aft Super.money teamed up pinch SoftBank-backed Juspay to motorboat a one-click checkout acquisition for online merchants, aimed chiefly astatine direct-to-consumer brands.

About 1,000 merchants already usage nan solution, and Super.money plans to grow that web done partnerships pinch much D2C players and different companies wrong nan Flipkart group, Sikaria said.

The secured paper earns merchant discount gross connected transactions, and that costs nan cashback, Sikaria said. “Obviously, location is simply a modular acquisition interest to nan partner slope that we complaint to nan bank, truthful that comes arsenic a monetization for america arsenic well,” he added.

Super.money plans to rumor astir 200,000 secured cards a period nether its business pinch Kotak earlier expanding to different banks, Sikaria said.

So far, Flipkart has invested astir $50 cardinal successful Super.money to footwear disconnected its operations. As nan business scales, nan fintech plans to raise further superior — perchance from outer investors arsenic well.

“We request much superior for astatine slightest a mates of years,” Sikaria said. “Very soon, we’ll commencement formulating our capital-raise strategy.”

He declined to opportunity whether nan adjacent information would travel from Flipkart aliases extracurricular investors but noted that Super.money is receiving inbound liking from “a batch of investors.”

In nan meantime, Sikaria said nan institution is keeping its rate pain low, describing its existent monthly pain arsenic a “low single-digit cardinal number” without providing specifics.

He added that Super.money is deliberately focusing connected India’s apical 10 to 30 cardinal users, alternatively than competing pinch mass-market costs players specified arsenic Google Pay aliases PhonePe that target hundreds of millions.

“What we want to do is build a formidable secured paper franchise pinch a profitable P&L — for us, nan bank, and our customers arsenic well,” Sikaria said.