Zomato launches cashless payment option in Dubai

The bill for the meal is sent directly to the app on the diner's smartphone; payment is automatically deducted from the registered card

Gurgaon-based Zomato, one of the fastest growing start-ups in India that has acquired seven companies across the world in past six months, on Tuesday launched a cashless feature on its mobile application (app) in Dubai.

Zomato has launched its latest innovation in exclusive partnership with Emirates NBD. The facility will initially be available across 120 participating restaurants in Dubai.

The cashless feature would give Zomato users an option to settle their bill at participating restaurants without paying cash or physically swiping their cards at the restaurants. "At the end of the meal, the final bill amount is sent directly to the app on the diner's smartphone and the payment is automatically deducted from the registered card," the company said in a statement.

"Credit card usage is extremely strong in Dubai which makes it the perfect market to launch a consumer feature as powerful as cashless. Our focus has always been on making dining experiences more convenient for users, and this is going to change the way people dine out. We will be taking Cashless to more markets in the very near future," said Pankaj Chaddah, Co-Founder and COO of Zomato.

Diners paying with cashless will enjoy a 10 per cent discount on their first transaction. Besides, the first 500 Emirates NBD Credit cardholders who pay using cashless at participating restaurants will also get cashback and Emirates NBD Credit cardholders will get the 10 per cent cashback till the end of this month on each Zomato cashless transaction, Zomato said.

"We are confident that this attractive offer will be an excellent value addition to our customers in terms of dining experience, whilst reaping great savings and other benefits," said Suvo Sarkar, general manager (retail banking and wealth management), Emirates NBD.

Zomato, the Indian restaurant search service, cannot introduce its latest innovation - cashless payment service - in India because of stringent credit card payment guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). US-based taxi aggregator Uber, too, had faced the same problem when it entered India last year.

However, Zomato will not be able to launch the cashless payment feature, which is seen as a strong revenue contributor for Zomato, in India anytime soon because of regulatory hurdles. The feature is now inactive in India where it gets about 12 million visitors a month. Zomato lists more than 60,000 restaurants across 36 cities in India.

RBI guidelines mandate two-step authentication on credit cards. The new rules came in force in August 2014 for all transactions made through credit cards irrespective of the value. While it ensures better security for consumers, it is looked as cumbersome by the business community.

Uber had started its service after partnering with mobile payment solution provider Paytm in November 2014. Here, a customer has his/her money pre-loaded on to the mobile wallet account and the stored cash is being used to complete transactions.

While Zomato is present across 22 countries, about 75 per cent of its revenue comes from India and the United Arab Emirates and close to 45 per cent of visitors check Zomato on mobile devices. According to the company's filings with the Registrar of Companies, Zomato had revenue of Rs 36.11 crore in the financial year ended March 2014, a three-fold rise from Rs 12.29 crore in the previous year.