SUMMARY
- PhonePe acquires Gupshup’s GSPay tech to enable UPI payments on feature phones using UPI 123PAY.
- Plans to develop feature-phone UPI app offering P2P, offline QR, and interoperable payments with smartphones.
- Targets inclusion of 24 crore existing and 15 crore new feature phone users in India’s digital payments ecosystem.
In order to enable UPI-based payments for feature phones, PhonePe has announced an IP acquisition of Gupshup’s proprietary “GSPay” technology stack, which is used by conversational engagement platform Gupshup.
The NPCI UPI payment solution for feature phones (UPI 123PAY) serves as the foundation for the mobile application GSPay.
Over the following few quarters, PhonePe claims to develop its own feature-phone based UPI payment mobile app for new feature phones in India and modify and expand the recently acquired GSPay IP.
PhonePe seeks to offer all of the fundamental UPI functions, including P2P transfers, offline QR payments, and the seamless receipt of funds from other UPI users on their mobile numbers or self-QRs. In addition to bringing the millions of Indians who still use feature phones into the Indian digital payments ecosystem, this effort intends to fully interoperable payments between feature phone and smartphone users.
Sameer Nigam, co-founder & CEO of PhonePe stated, “This segment of users has been historically underserved by the digital financial industry and the broader startup ecosystem. We hope we can enable crores of these feature phone customers to participate in India’s burgeoning digital payments market.”
PhonePe’s business portfolio consists of new consumer tech companies (Pincode and Indus AppStore) and financial product distribution (insurance, loan, and wealth).
In 2024, there were about 24 crore feature phone users in India, according to market research, and during the next five years, another 15 crore feature phone sales are anticipated.
With more than 60 crore (600 million) registered customers and a network of more than 4 crore merchants accepting digital payments, PhonePe was launched in 2016. Furthermore, it handles more than 33 crore transactions every day, with an annualized Total Payment Value (TPV) exceeding ₹150 lakh crore.
